Tough Love
by ViOlEt-KaT
Summary: A dull night at the hospital usually means boredom beyond compare but it changes for Sakura as some idiot almost gets himself killed. As head doctor and as a former teammate she should heal him and be there for him... right? Rated for mature themes. ch.5!
1. Cold Shoulder

(A/N: Hi! This is my second story… if you haven't read the first one then read it… NOW. Heh heh. I think I've gotten a little bit bolder too. It's like I graduated or something. I hope you enjoy the first chapter of my new extended story: Tough Love!)

**Disclaimer:Why do I have to do this? Everyone knows I can't own anything for life.**

**Title: Tough Love**

**Chapter 1: Cold Shoulder**

Coffee… how should it be described? Hmmm… Nectar of the Gods? No, it tastes too chalky for that type of recognition. The Fountain of Youth? Yech, too Gai-ish. A spirit raiser? … No, whenever she drank it, she felt her mood darken along with the after taste, even if it was an energy booster. That's what it was! An energy booster … yippee. Green eyes glowered at the murky brown substance, being splotched out of the machine, filling out the mug she held. At first when she had tried it, inexperienced and full of curiosity, she spewed it right back out of her mouth earning an uproar of a laugh from the great woman that was, and still is, her teacher. The mug itself had a good yet bad sense too it as well. The good sense was that it had her name infringed on it with her favorite color and the bad sense… the rest of the mug held the color she hated with a passion. Pink. Yes, it was a bit contradicting since her own _natural_ hair color was indeed pink. Henceforth her name, "in red letters" which she'd like to think crimson, Sakura.

Why did her parents give her such a common name after such a common tree? There were a million Sakura's and more than a billion trees carrying the name as well. You'd think that they'd have enough of the damn thing all over the world but no. She figured it was indeed because her otherworldly traits deemed her so. In fact she was told that they thought of Kaoru. A nice tomboyish ring to it, that wasn't given to, too many females. She had lots of other names people chose to call her instead also. Names that were hurtful and she seemed to be always the target for. Thinking back on them she realized they never stopped. Within each new chapter of her life there was always a new one like forehead, billboard brow, annoying … ugly. She snorted. That was the new one. Ugly. Most of the other names seemed to depict that word in a semi "nicer" kind of way but it was the first time she was shocked that someone had come out and said it. She _was_ ugly no matter what anyone said. Not even that idiotic best friend on her team.

She sighed a long, depressed, breath out from her mouth and then blew over the ridge of the cup dismissing the steam the liquid gave off cooling it in preparation for her awaiting tongue and its taste buds. She never sipped the stuff after learning to cope with its taste. She always gulped it 3 times or her time energized would never go right. It's foolish to think it this way and she knows it, but she can't get out of her habit. Just like the coffee… her constant mental task setting is an addiction and is hard to get rid of. The sort of job she had could always do this to you because these were the boring hours, where nothing bad or unexpected would happen, and fill you with nothing but paperwork that could be done the next day. That was it. Gazing at the clock, she thought she might as well get rid of the paperwork that littered her desk so she wouldn't have to deal with it when she came back the next day. Or rather after her 10 hours were up, because technically as it was midnight, it was the next day.

One foot after the other she trudged up the steps avoiding the elevators. There was always someone seeking her presence in those boxes they called elevators. Sakura hated the stuffiness and the people always trying to speak to you when you're trying to grasp fresh air only to know that it doesn't exist in that space because kami-sama hated you and loved torturing you. Her breaths came out ragged as she neared the highest and final floor of the whole entire building where her office resided. Yes the ugly, pink haired, wide foreheaded, down-in-the-dumps, girl had an office. Although she was ugly it never prevented her from landing the position of head doctor and medical ninja, second only to her teacher. Suddenly "the boxes" didn't seem so bad. She shook her head in protest and preceded to the last door down the hall.

The clock on her desk read 12:15 in electronic numbers right next to the stack of papers that would never compare to the amount the Hokage had to deal with and Sakura felt that she shouldn't complain. Staring at the white mound with disinterest as she brought the mug to her lips again taking her 2nd gulp of the coffee, she pulled out her drawer containing stamps, pens, and white-out. Lots of weird smelling, ink covering white-out. She set a stamp that was nearly out of ink just like the rest of its kind on the table right before a copy of a picture she kept at home. It was her old Team 7 picture containing Hatake Kakashi, the well known prodigy of the 2nd Secret World War who earned the title: Copy Ninja Kakashi and was always called a genius since the age of 9, herself…, Uzumaki Naruto: the jinchuuriki of the kyuubi and apprentice to another sannin like her self known as the famous Toad Sage Jiraiya, and him… Uchiha Sasuke, sole survivor of the Uchiha clan massacre and avenger of that clan that betrayed the village to fulfill his self proclaimed destiny.

Her conscious was beginning to sound like Hyuuga Neji, also another prodigy like Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei as she realized this and rolled her eyes. She smiled at the honorifics that stuck to their names even throughout apparent closeness or distance in reality. The stack wasn't getting any smaller as she looked at the photo with mixed emotions. So many of them swirled inside of her at a rapid pace that she had to look away and slam it face down on the surface of her desk. A cracking sound escaped the shaped and she sighed picking up a piece of paper from the mountain and started reading. If Naruto were here she would have been asked what's wrong and she wouldn't comply after breaking his nose. Right now, him and Kakashi were both jounin as she, and were on a mission that they rushed to start before she came back from her own one manned mission. To top it off the mission was top secret. The day she came back she was fuming. How dare they not take her? Oh well. If they came back bruised and battered she wasn't going to heal them, as punishment for their haste.

Take a paper, stamp, skim, and sign. That's what paperwork entitled. She'd actually read what she signed tomorrow. This fast paced but boring process finished itself in 10 minutes and she huffed again. There were no rounds to go about as she, over little than a month, had successfully hired and trained more nurses and doctors to do so. They didn't have to be ninja they just had to be educated with the know how of the human body and want a job. As a 15 yr old she found that the staff was limited and even suggested that it was a requirement to have more on night staff but she was ignored by the head doctor back then who saw a means to not treat her according to her status as apprentice to leader of the village. Sakura figured the guy was just jealous or something because not once did she feel she was full of her self and spoiled. Quite the opposites actually, _'Now look whose boss,'_ she slyly thought, smirking.

The Hokage had complimented her and chastised her just the same during her 2 year long managing of the hospital. It was hard at first and lots of people were against it but she made it through with the entire support of the self proclaimed "next Hokage" and Icha Icha Paradise reader that happened to be her family. She did have family concerning blood once or still does but they had disowned her and kicked her out of the house when she'd became chuunin. The teenager frowned at the thought. Her family was a bit old fashioned and believed she should be in the kitchen for the rest of her life, she snorted, thinking back to burning everything she attempted to call a meal. The kitchen couldn't stand her and she smiled at this thought. Then frowned once realizing what she was staring at. It wasn't a good thing when her basic survival skills didn't kick in at all during her life. Seriously, the last time she sowed it was with her great grandmother who died before she was in her second year of the ninja academy. Every time she picked up that needle and put it down she always ended up poking herself with the point. She shook her head and thought that if anyone would know what she really was like they'd make fun of her. What woman doesn't even know how to cook for herself? Even picky, Ino-pig does that.

She reached for her mug to take one last swig of the earthy substance and paused sensing someone's presence coming fast towards her direction. Her hand slipped into the top drawer of her desk where she had a stash of kunai and other types of knives she had custom made for her. If you ask her why, she'll just give you a weird smile, and laugh maniacally while walking away. The chakra this presence held was enormous and she sighed once it halted to a stop. How could she not know who that was? Finally the "presence" she felt poofed into her room with giving a hint of a knock. As the smoke from the teleportation faded she saw blonde hair sticking out of the black mist accompanied by the bobbing of the hair due to heavy breathing. Then the smoke completely cleared away as it revealed none other than Uzumaki Naruto, the next Hokage, walking towards her desk.

"Oi, Sakura-chan! We need your help come quick!" is the first thing he uttered before dodging several weird looking knives aimed at his vital points. He huffed and puffed even more after dodging her arsenal. "How many times do I have to tell you to knock?!" she boomed. He winced closing one of his eyes in response to the harshness of her voice. He dared to look up at very angry Haruno Sakura who was waiting for an answer. "It's an emergency!" he uttered, while sweating bullets. She calmed down and with her anger gone her murder intent went too, much to the relief of the latter shinobi. "Well what's the emergency?" she reached for her mug again to take that last swig so she'd be in shape for whatever met her.

He didn't say anything for awhile but spat it out as she held the mug to her lips. "It's Sasuke! He's back! He finally beat Itachi but he's pretty beat up and the only one who could heal him is you or baa-chan," Sakura froze at her drinking coffee and stared at Naruto with wild eyes and heart beating fast. Sasuke was back. He did what he was set out to do and he's back. That's what went through her mind. Her demeanor went back to normal much to the surprise of Naruto who thought she would jump up and down and cry. Instead she replied, "How did you come across him?"

"Eh?"

"How did you find him?"

"Oh… uh… he was… on his last limbs with this weird look in his eyes on the border just outside of Sound. We were coming back from scouting for rumored Akatsuki movement but found none and then all of sudden we see the guys fighting… but that's not important right now Sakura. He's dying you gotta help him."

"I don't have to do anything. Go ask Tsunade-sama."

"…!"

"You heard me. Get that dumb look off your face it's not becoming of the next Hokage."

"But Sakura, this is Sasuke!"

"Your point?"

"It's Sasuke! He needs your help! Didn't you say that you wish you could pay us back from the times we always saved you? This is one of your chances!"

"Well I'm not giving him a chance. He doesn't deserve one."

"Aw c'mon, Sakura, you're the only one who could do it!"

"I said to go get Tsunade-sama! Stop pestering me and get the hell out of my office."

"… Sakura?"

"What?"

"The Hokage is out of town, due to urgent business with the Raikage," the voice didn't belong to Naruto because he'd never speak about someone with such respect, so she looked up from her mug and leaned back on her reclining chair.

She crossed her legs and held the mug that was now holding lukewarm liquid with both hands and stared at the one she knew as Kakashi-sensei. He was covered in blood that wasn't his. The pink haired kunoichi and the gray haired indifferent shinobi stared at each other long and hard for a full minute. It seemed hours for Naruto who said he was going to go check up on the avenger to make sure the nurses wouldn't try anything funny. Sakura snorted when he poofed away. She stood up and placed the mug in a nearby microwave she held in her room. She set it to a minute and a half and turned towards her ex-teacher who was looking down. "I know you have no reason to… help him out nor save his life but… would it be a reason if I asked you to do it for me and Naruto? The one's who didn't try to hurt you or kill you in the past?" She sighed and ran her hand through her bangs that she decided to put in front of her face again since she was 17. "… Why would you think that would be the reason I didn't want to help him?" she asked with sarcasm dripping off her words.

"Please Sakura?" He begged her but it sounded more like a demand and it pissed her off. Still she kept her composure and walked towards the door exiting out of her office. "Fine, just get out." Kakashi slowly turned around towards her and the door taking one last glance at the girl, now almost a woman, he had known to be the most sensible of his three students/team. She wasn't being sensible now though and it puzzled him to no end. They kept eye contact until he was out the door and she slammed it for emphasis to let everyone know in the whole damn hospital that she was angry and not to be messed with at all. She simply didn't accept people telling her to do her job. Glaring at the poor microwave that had nothing less than 30 more seconds to go, she left the appliance in an angry state and went down the hall muttering, "Taking the stupid elevator." As soon as she heard the beep from down the hall she considered going back due to her "ritual," but thought better of it seeing as her shift tonight would never go right now that he came back disturbing the time of peace. The door to the box she had loathed arrived with its annoying little ding sound and opened up releasing air from whatever floor it was from last time. It smelled of blood. Lots of it… in fact some of it was all over the walls of the box. She hesitated for awhile frozen in her spot with Peridot eyes wide with fear. It could've been from Sasuke but that didn't worry her. What if he woke up when they were taking him to the emergency center, panicked, and started hacking and slashing away? The possibilities were endless since all the Uchiha seemed unstable anyway.

The elevator with its stupid program thought it had passengers and started to shut itself from the rest of her hall floor. A hand banged against its edge preventing it from closing completely and pushed towards the opposite direction. Her foot stepped inside with the other following it close behind. When she let go of the sliding door, the edge was bent from her now clenching and unclenching hands, _'If that jerk did anything on my watch I'll make sure he dies before reaching the operating table,'_ she considered.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

Her assumptions were fortunately, or for her case unfortunately, never met as she saw at least 20 of her staff working around the hospital's patient. Anbu were there too, apparently for security reasons, 'No doubt Kakashi-sensei's doing,' she thought while looking at the scene as if nothing was happening. Looking off to the right away from the door she saw Shizune giving the Black Ops and panicking nurses orders, clearly stressed herself. She walked to her sempai patiently and calming with an absolute-zero-smile plastered on her face. While inching closer and closer to the dark haired kunoichi she glanced here and there for Naruto whom she thought wouldn't be so hard to find in such a crowd, what with his blonde hair in the sea of white caps and sticking up over a fox mask, but for some reason he was this time. Keeping an ear out for his loud obnoxious voice, she tapped Shizune on the shoulder that jumped at the contact with a yelp.

Chuckles escaped the pink haired medical nin/ head doctor at her sempai's actions and replied, "How about I take over from here?" The older kunoichi nodded furiously obviously exhausted and stressed. The kunoichi stared at the scene then cocked her head as if in deep thought. Shizune watched the Hokage's apprentice with uncertainty, "Ano sa… Sakura? I thought you were going to handle this," she said holding out her hands to the evident chaos. The Peridot eyes that belonged to her comrade showed a flicker of some foreign emotion but waved it off as nothing serious when Sakura shook her head as if clearing out the clutter building up in it. "Oh yeah…" was her response as she brought her hand up to her face and let out a whistle through the two fingers she put in her mouth. Everyone quieted and stopped what they were doing, paying attention to the young head nurse. "This is not a circus people! I need 3 surgeons and 4 assistants on the double not 20 or 30 on call for some S-class criminal that needs an attitude adjustment. Toriyama, Naota, Yuuki, get washed up. You, you, you, and you set up the room across from us that you just dumped him in. The rest of you get lost and will someone please clean that elevator! It's disgusting how you just feel that blood on the walls is normal I want it to squeaky clean by the time I finish operating." They all just stared at her, most of them had their jaws dropped, her eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "GET A MOVE ON PEOPLE!" is what she burst out with making everyone scramble all over the place in panic.

The pink haired kunoichi looked towards the Anbu looking for their leader and finally spotting him. "Oi, I want your guys to spread out a bit… matter of fact, have them posted all over this hallway specifically. Don't allow anyone but staff personnel into this area and make sure they have I.D. Five of you should do in the room. No more than that," The leader nodded and started giving out orders as she turned towards Shizune who also had her jaw dropped in awe. "And Shizune… make sure that news does not get out about him being here. If the staff utter one word outside these walls or even in dock their pay. I said before that this isn't a circus and I meant it. Have our fastest messenger bird get to Tsunade-sama relaying the message that there finally is a last Uchiha and that he should be in her company right away, then go get some sleep," Sakura gave Shizune a sheepish smile to speechless woman that nodded and disappeared within a cloud of smoke.

Sakura took a deep breath and looked once more for her teammates that she knew were lurking somewhere. Since she couldn't spot anyone in the two minutes stalling, she went off to wash her hands. "A reason to work on that sorry excuse for a human is a favor, huh?" she muttered to herself stalking off, unaware she was being watched by a one eye that seemed to move along the mask that blocked the rest of the face the eye belonged to crinkled.

Preview: "There is no way in hell that I'm taking care of that dickhead!" she yelled at the elder woman. Tsunade closed her eyes, frustrated and tired, and reached for the bridge of her nose to be pinched. "Watch your mouth Sakura… besides this is an order not a request get over that mind set." The blonde stared hard and long at Sakura not giving a damn about her apprentice's issues with a certain Uchiha.

(A/N: Well what do you think? Was it good? Please tell me!!! I know I'm bugging out.)


	2. Anger Management

(A/N: Wow… it's been a long time since I've updated, huh? I've been thinking up on different stories to much. Y'know… just sitting there and brainstorming but really never doing anything. I need to stop that. If you can't remember what happened in the 1st chapter just re-read it. I know how it feels...)

**Disclaimer: Why do I have to do this? Everyone knows I can't own anything for life.**

**Title: Tough Love**

**Chapter 2: Anger Management**

What the hell are those noises? Instead of the numerous pattering of those heavy drops from that day he only hears a miniscule staccato of one at a time… and an electrical beeping every 3 drops? Annoyed at the unusual but familiar sounds he moves his hand and aches in response to the movement. _'I'm not dead,'_ is his deduction after a few minutes. Putting his conclusion to the test he tries to open his eyes that seem like heavy curtains that have to be pushed to the side with much effort. At first he only sees a blurry vision of light and becomes unsatisfied with the image given. So what does he do? Closes his eyes and opens them again for a better focus instead of waiting for them to adjust, that's what he does.

He finds himself staring at a mirror adorned ceiling that's littered with small orbs of light showing himself look up. Puzzled he shifts his eyes to confirm that he is indeed in a hospital room while looking up the whole time. Apparently he's in a standard bed with white sheets covering him and his left arm is hooked up to an IV that's giving him food until he can eat by the mouth again. His forefinger is covered in metal recording his pulse while being attached by sticky gauze. The floor doesn't have tiles either and also contains a huge mirror like stone. He ignored the many dark haired men the room reflected. _'Pretty odd for a hospital room,'_ was his opinion. Looking around more there's another person in the room that seemed to be dozing off on a three legged stool with no back. It takes him awhile to register that the person has familiar pink hair and is a woman dressed in a lab coat.

Her hand was occupied with a clipboard accompanied by many sheets of paper that would probably have her notes of how his condition was. _'Sakura?'_ he thought while trying to sit up. If "ache" was the word described before for his body's reaction that was an understatement. He was groggy and had a hard time gathering his bearings while doing such a menial task and breathed heavy while doing so. His chest and arms were sore and screamed with pain that he had learned to ignore in a shinobi's lifetime. As soon as he sat upright and stole a glance at where she was slumped at again he paused as she was staring right back at him with Peridot eyes… or was that a glare?

They were like that for a long time just staring or glaring at each other until she decided to make the first move, which happened to be the action of her standing up, and walking over to the IV removing it rather harshly. Used to pain he ignored the nerves that blazed like fire and didn't give off a wince that she probably expected. He was shocked she didn't try to engage in any conversation but felt it was best it be that way. She seemed to be his doctor and from the looks of her appearance, as he stared at her with black diamonds, she spent a long time looking after him. Her hair was slightly stringy, her eyes were dressed in light dark circles in which between them were stress lines forming. The lines reminded him of his brother's and he finally snapped out of his staring at her and looked down at his hands. They were limp with shock but still there and realized that they had done something important. _'I… I finally killed him. My brother… he's gone at my hands,'_ he looked back up to the one he knew as childhood teammate.

The years had seemed to do her wonders as she had curves he wasn't aware of until he examined her more as did she. Her hair wasn't in the style she had it in when seeing her at age 15, as it was tied up into a messy bun, but was still short. Her eyes were more mature and defined and she seemed to have a fetish for light make-up that he had never seen her wear before. When she turned to write on a chart that was hanging off the wall he got a full view of her backside and lifted a brow. It was clear that she wasn't a little girl anymore and was what? 19 years old now? She was ignoring him as he checked her out.

He also got the feeling that she loathed him but couldn't blame her and honestly didn't care why. He never cared anymore. He could finally rest at the fact that one of his most important goals in life was finally accomplished. Yet he felt as if it wasn't enough. Ignoring the sensation he croaked out the first words from his dry mouth and uttered in the strange room, "How long have I been asleep?" she stopped her actions and looked down at his face devoid of any emotion except exhaustion. Her face hardened as she spoke in a business like tone, "A week," and continued to give him a check up of his vitals.

After she finished her task she walked towards the door and stopped her hand in mid air before touching the door knob. Her head turned slightly as she muttered, "Congratulations," then opened the door and walked out slowly closing the door behind her in the same speed. In that action he saw several Anbu standing outside his door. Their masks seemed to mock him at her attitude towards his reappearance in her life. Why should he care that she acted nonchalant towards him? She always was annoying… yet something of a small voice told him that she was more than that and should be avoided. He listened to it and decided to try his escape attempt now. Concentrating his he instantly found he couldn't. Irritated and groggy from the drugs he was probably given he placed his hand on a nearby wall for support to stand up.

As soon as he touched it he felt woozy but snatched his hand away from it as he almost fainted and looked at the black dots that had gathered around his line of sight until they disappeared. It felt as if the room was designed to take away any chakra he tried to conjure up for anything related to tasks that needed a lot of effort. He sighed and plopped back down on the soft pillow that supported his head with the realization that he felt groggy not only from the drugs that circulated his blood stream from the nutrition given in a little plastic tube. The whole room drained his chakra and was merciless as it only let him have enough to live on. He literally felt it float away to every direction of the area. His dark brow furrowed in thought as to what to do next while settling on the palms of his hands that he put behind his head in deep thought glaring at his reflection while doing so.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

"The jerk," she mumbles while passing a nearby nurse with a puzzled expression. Turning the corner she relays the last fifteen minutes spent in that room. And in agreement with her assumption of him he was. The first thing he says to the person that saves his sorry ass is, "How long have I been asleep?" No recognition of a name or a thank you like he left her with nine years ago. All he did was stare at her and ask one of the most unimportant questions in his S-class criminal life... then stared some more! One word describes him best. Jerk. Or maybe two more words? Dirty Creep. She saw him staring at her out of the corner of her eyes. She didn't have the Sharingan but she had some good eyes. Just what the hell was he looking at?

Despite her judgment of him she couldn't help but feel concerned for him. He seemed lost. His eyes gave off hints of horrible untold testimonies just waiting to be administered to the Hokage and council. Naruto was right though… he did have a weird look in them. _'Wonder if he has the Mangekyou Sharingan now?'_ she mused while going up the 10 flights of stairs to her floor. He probably did. After all he did beat one that actually had it. Thankfully the room he was put in at the last basement floor of the hospital drained away the chakra needed to activate his eyes. She also couldn't help wondering what he had been through in order to gain the power he had now, the power that she and Naruto were considered to be equals to. _'Hope that's the case. I didn't work my butt off to be considered otherwise.'_ Finally reaching her floor she stopped to catch her breath with a light sheen of perspiration coated over her forehead. "Maybe I should install a private elevator. This is ridiculous," she admitted out loud in between heavy gasps.

"Ooh! If you do could me and Kakashi-sensei ride in it too?" a voice sounded by her. Peridot eyes twitched at the request as she sighed out, "Where the hell were you two for the whole week?" A chuckle escaped the mouth of someone who wasn't Naruto making her turn around to face her teammates. "Ano sa… ano sa… well I was around waiting for you to cool off. You seemed to be really angry when we got back home with Sasuke-teme. I don't know about Kakashi-sensei though," the blonde shinobi answered. The said nin was busy reading and it took her awhile to notice that he laughed at the abomination in his hands rather than her little rant. She stormed off and almost slammed the door leading to her office behind her but thought better of it and called out to them, "Speaking of which he's awake. Go monitor him if you have nothing else better to do than bother me."

The blonde gawked in her wake and turned towards the one next to him only to find him gone. Eyes turning into slits of confusion he looked left, right, up, and down for the man but never found him. Shrugging he raced to the elevator and pounded on the button with his thumb until the door opened with a ding sound and yelled, "Yosh!" Sakura rolled her eyes at her childhood friend's antics as she reviewed the notes she took on Sasuke. The young man healed quickly and produced lots of chakra in just a matter of 1 hour that could power the room he was held in for years to come. It was something she came up with to make it easier on the Hyuuga clan that was periodically asked to seal the chakra points of the patients that were unstable or aggressive. It was made of the same element that happened to be Naruto's necklace and Akatsuki member's rings. The same, yet different, as the composition drained away chakra instead of suppressing it.

The chakra couldn't stay in the room though, it had to be filtered and transferred into capsules used for the hospital patients to take during transition procedures, operations, or plain energy for the building to run on. The traitor didn't even know he was helping those he had abandoned. Yawning she rubbed her eyes in a clockwise motion and realized she had to report to the Hokage that he was awake. His trial would begin immediately but she felt too tired to neither attend nor start it. _'I'll let the idiots catch up with each other,'_ she thought while drifting off to a peaceful darkness laying her seemingly heavy head on the desk covering herself from the outside world as her arms circled around her.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

And catch up they did as Naruto burst into the door yelling, "TEME!" Sasuke repressed the urge to smirk as his eye twitched. Some things never changed after all. He sat up and turned to the one person he could actually call a best friend. Yet he knew he had no right to claim it as such being the traitor he was. Bright azure eyes that belonged to a young man but still seemed to have a childlike innocence to them locked with black diamonds that had no indication of life to them at all. Time stopped for them as they glared at each other and drank in each other's presence. Unlike Sakura they had seen each other often almost every year as Naruto chased him to bring him back. "You tried to escape didn't you, you bastard?"

Sasuke's glare went away as he lifted a brow as in questioning Naruto's knowledge. "Don't try to bother. Sakura-chan is in charge of your being here," the blonde continued.

"And I care why?" Sasuke countered turning his head directly in front of him so he wouldn't have to see his friend's eyes.

"Well she's head doctor of the hospital and happened to have designed this room. Nothing she makes is ineffective."

Sasuke snorts, "Right, dobe."

"Don't call me dobe, teme!" Naruto roared nearing Sasuke's bed.

"Then don't call me teme, dobe!" He whipped his head to Naruto forgetting the fact that they were indeed 20 and not 12.

Moments passed as they continued to glare at each other, then Naruto's face changed into an expressionless one staring at the dark haired shinobi much to Sasuke's surprise though he never relayed it on his face. Naruto turned to the right trying to hold something in his mouth as he trembled reaching for the three legged stool Sakura had occupied earlier. Sasuke raised another brow as he looked at Naruto's glee filled eyes. The look he gave the fellow shinobi forced Naruto to bust out with laughter. Sasuke couldn't help but chuckle a little as well for a full minute.

After their moment it fell quiet again as they sat there recalling everything they had been through till this point. Sasuke didn't feel the need to talk but knew Naruto would in 3…2…1, "So how you feelin'?" Sasuke was quiet for awhile still thinking about this morning… or afternoon... or night. So sue him! He couldn't tell because there were no windows or clocks. "I've had worse," he lied and Naruto nodded knowingly. "Soooo… what do you think of Sakura-chan?" Sasuke stole a glance at the expectant Naruto and shrugged asking after, "When did she get like that?" Naruto held a hand to his chin a thinking pose making Sasuke inwardly shake his head. _'He really didn't change… after everything,'_ then the blonde smacked a fist on top of his other hand's palm and declared, "Since she turned 16. That was around the time she gave up on you." Sasuke glanced at Naruto's arm and almost gaped had it not been for his self composure.

"Hn… can't believe your Anbu," azure eyes blinked at the comment that seemed to be an insult but shrugged it off and retorted in satisfied pride, "Not only Anbu, but captain, guess who's candidate for next Hokage (gesturing to himself with both his thumbs) aaaand…Sakura's co-captain," this was when Sasuke's composure shattered and his mouth dropped in awe. The one whom he had known as the village idiot was going to live out his dream as the most respected and unprecedented person in the whole entire village. Sakura was co-captain of the Anbu. That means she leads over more than at least 500 very skilled shinobi along with Naruto. If the subordinates were supposed to be good then how was she as their 2nd in command? Co-captains were always of equal strength to the one actually leading. Wait scratch that. Didn't the dobe say she was the head doctor? What the hell was going on? That weak girl that needed protection is… "Finally there's a reaction from your ugly face, teme," Sasuke focused on Naruto whom he had tuned out and looked at his sly grin.

"Aa," was his response as the composure he had learned to keep settled back in. He could practically feel Naruto's jaw drop at the unexpected reaction. In his rival's further disappointment he heard the blonde mumble to himself about brain dead bastards like him. It fell quiet again for 10 minutes and Sasuke could feel Naruto's urge to talk. He always did hate the silence unlike Sasuke who loved it. The midnight eyes that were his shifted towards the doorway sensing another presence along with Naruto who swerved his head in a violent response. Naruto's shoulders slumped a little in a relaxed fashion and let a small smile slip through, "Well are you gonna come on in or pretend to stand guard?" A chuckle came from behind the door and in an instant a cloud of smoke dispersed in front of them finally revealing a gray haired man from the past.

"Yo," he greeted them so casually holding up a hand not even looking up from the book in his hands, that Sasuke almost thought he never left Konoha. The elder man finally did look up and locked eyes with his once absent student that seemed to be lost in nostalgia then finally nodded in acknowledgement of his presence and turned his head in front of him in deep thought. "So is there anything you want to tell me too? The dobe's already tried to have his fill of updates as of late…" and narrowed his eyes in recall of what the blonde had relayed to him. "Hm… the elders and the Hokage should be here anytime soon but… I guess Sakura decided to take a nap or something. She's barely had any sleep since she took you into **her** hospital," Kakashi gazed at Sasuke waiting for any type of reaction from the young man so he could continue. Taking silence as a sign to go, he admitted, "Someone in this room is getting married next year…" making Sasuke snap his head up and turn his head towards him in utter shock.

He let the silence go on until realizing that Sasuke wanted an answer as to who since obviously it couldn't be himself. Smiling behind his mask and letting his eye go into a familiar amused expression he announced, "It's the one who gave you your first kiss," and was surprised to see Sasuke's face go pale. "Hey don't look so depressed and constipated you jack-ass! You're supposed to be happy for me! HAPPY!!!" the blonde closest to the incapacitated nin yelled at him, then Sasuke finally emitted, "On what planet?" Before Naruto lunged at him in rage Kakashi squeaked in a little factor of importance, "It's Hinata, her father gave our boy a hard time at first but then came around when learning that someone is going to be Hokage a-," He stopped as soon as Naruto stood up abruptly. He violently turned around and pointed towards him in expectation and declared, "I was going to say that Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi's ever expressive eye defined itself even more as he said, "Yeah right."

Naruto inhaled a ton of breath to shout something else to come back at him with but deflated as he found out Kakashi said the truth. Mumbling about busy-bodies he shoved his fisted hands in his pockets and told them when not turning his head that he would go tell the Hokage someone in the room had woken up. As soon as the door closed a comfortable silence passed through only filled with the sound of paper turning from the book Kakashi held. Kakashi began the conversation again like it was just about the weather when in fact it was something much more important. "He wanted you to be the best man but didn't know what to do if he couldn't find you. You know how stubborn he is," sneaking a glance from his perverted reading he saw Sasuke's hands fisted in the sheets and his head down. "Why would he make someone like me, an S-class criminal he barely knows his best man? That's stupid… I don't even know if I'm going to be executed or not in a few more days. Not that I care…" the poor young man seemed distraught and confused much to Kakashi's pity. Sasuke seemed to be talking to himself rather than the other person in the room.

"Y'know there was plenty of times he could've captured you but didn't because he realized you still had something to do and respected it by letting you go every time he had you. You must have realized it by now… I know you did," Kakashi saw the one across from him tighten his hold on the sheets even more. Realizing it was still a delicate subject he moved on, "Besides who says you're going to be executed? It pays to know the right people and you my boy are one lucky S-class criminal to know them," Sasuke's head shot up to look at his teacher but found no one there anymore. It annoyed him how his ex-sensei, never changed too, always arriving late and leaving early. "Whatever…" he said lying back down on the bed and continued what he was doing 30 minutes ago. Sleeping.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

Almond honey glaze eyes looked down at the pink haired person in front on the desk. There was drool escaping the mouth and cascaded across the plane soaking her cheeks and some papers that probably needed approvals. She shook her head and mused the question as to how people called Sakura her "mini-me." The Hokage took cautioned steps around the doctor's desk toward the sleeping figure making sure she didn't wake her up. This was the ex-apprentice that had surpassed her after all. Thankful that an ear popped out of the pink bush that was Sakura's hair she gathered a huge breath in her lungs ready to let it out in a booming yell. But she couldn't do that as Sakura lifted her head slowly and rubbed her eyes mumbling, "Hello, Tsunade-sama," the older woman deflated as her chest heaved down letting out all the air she had. Did she really wake Sakura up like that so much that she was used to it? That wouldn't do. She'd have to find another way and fast.

Pouting she got right to the point explaining what had happened in the past few hours walking over to one of Sakura's windows. She had just come out of Uchiha Sasuke's trial and boy was she stressed… also irritated that the accused was as unruffled as his hair. The whole time his face held no emotion and whenever asked any questions he barely answered. He should be grateful, or at least try to look like it, instead of scoffing and turning his head to the side when hearing he'd be on 3 year probation doing lots of community service. Apparently the council obviously found him guilty of siding with one of Konoha's most menacing threats in accordance with his punishment. When he heard that, he shrugged and continued to look bored making the council members begin to regret their decision. The woman had to give it to him though, he had guts… rather Orochimaru just got rid of them and replaced them with an overbearing nerve. That's what he had… nerve. His life was spared as it was known to them that he had killed off not one, but two, S-Class criminals who were a threat to the Village-Hidden-in-the-Leaves. When he heard that she could tell he wanted to say or do something else smart but held it in.

The council was well aware of the fact that he committed those acts for his own satisfaction and not for the sake of the village. Yet, he had friends he still didn't know he had that begged, pleaded, and threatened for a leniency on his punishment. At first it didn't work but in time the council got tired of their "incessant whining," as they put it, and finally agreed to let him live but the punishment was to be severe. Smirking she turned to her ex-pupil and frowned. The younger kunoichi held no emotion as she drank in the information. Tsunade was sure she'd have a much more interested facial expression. Oh well… time to burst Sakura's bubble of, "this-has-nothing-to-do-with-me-so-why-are-you-telling-me-all-of-this," attitude.

In fact a minute later Sakura asked, "That's it? What does this have to do with me?" Tsunade turned her attention to a picture frame that was face down on Sakura's desk. Her eyes spotted broken glass under it but said nothing about it. Touching more on the subject she asked her student, "So what do you think… about that Sasuke-boy?" She shifted her eye towards her student while walking over to the area where the picture laid. The pink haired girl shrugged intent on keeping eye contact with her Hokage but failing. Sakura was anything but stupid and knew the Slug Sannin was up to something. She narrowed her eyes and tried not to lace her words with malice and disappointment, "Good. For. Him," then her suspicions increased when Tsunade snuck a nonchalant glance at Sakura and continued, "No, I mean when he woke up… what was your personal assessment of him?"

Sakura's deadpanned answer brought a smile to the elder's face when she said, "He's an asshole," and then turned into a fit of chuckles earning a raised brow from the other. "Well… that asshole is going to be monitored by members of his old cell until further notice." Sakura's jaw dropped giving two points to Tsuande, "Which includes you as well. He is not to be out of sight of the 3 other members that were "Team 7" and is now known as Team Kakashi. Is that clear?" The pink haired girl seemed lost in another world turning her head to where Tsunade previously stood looking out the window. Tsunade took the picture frame up from the desk and turned it around so she could see the image. "By the way he's to take refuge in your quarters due to the Uchiha complex needing restoration and his old apartment being sold." Sakura's Peridot eyes snapped to honey ones in utter shock and horror, and then turned into infuriation when Tsunade pulled the picture out of the frame letting a few more shards of the glass drop to the floor.

A, "Tsk," came from the Hokage's mouth upon hearing the material collide with the floor and break into more pieces. She was waiting for a reaction besides a glare. There were too many glares headed in her general direction lately and she was frankly tired of them. Maybe her ex-pupil could release the boredom but what she got was a rather similar action that she herself harbored when hearing bad news. Sakura smashed her desk in half and stood up shaking in rage. Tsunade fought the temptation to yawn. Her apprentice let her down. "There is no way in hell that I'm taking care of that dickhead!" she yelled at the elder woman. Tsunade closed her eyes, frustrated and tired, and reached for the bridge of her nose to be pinched. "Watch your mouth Sakura… besides this is an order not a request, get over that mind set." The blonde stared hard and long at Sakura not giving a damn about her apprentice's issues with a certain Uchiha. She extended her arm towards the seething young woman and gave a stern look while holding the picture for it to be taken away. The younger kunoichi sucked her teeth and snatched the picture away from the Godaime's hands that raised a brow. Sakura was acting pretty childish for someone almost fulfilling her journey on to becoming a woman. A more mature one that hopefully doesn't present her current demeanor in the future.

The Slug Sannin turned towards the door behind her and let herself out leaving the head doctor to her thoughts. "Tch…" Sakura stared and stared at the picture in her hands. Her brow furrowed at in utter disgust as she began to tear it into shreds.

_You make me sick._

**RIP.**

_Sakura? Get off, you're heavy._

**RIP.**

_Hn._

**RIP.**

_Aa._

**RIP.**

_You really are annoying._

**RIP.**

_Ah… Sakura is it?_

**RIP.**

_I broke those bonds a long time ago._

**RIP.**

_Weak._

**RIP.**

_Get lost Sakura._

**RIP.**

_Stay out of my way..._

**RIP.**

_If you don't..._

**RIP.**

_...I'll kill you._

**RIP.**

_How long have I been asleep?_

**RIP. RIP. RIP. RIP. RIP. RIP. RIP. RIP. RIP. RIP. RIP. RIP. RIP. RIP. RIP. RIP.**

The picture fell into a heap of little pieces of paper onto the floor. Sakura found the sight unsatisfying and just had to… just had to… "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Scream. That was the word, scream. She fell onto the floor mumbling to her self when hearing a soft reluctant tap on the door. She cursed under her breath and stood up smoothing out her lab coat and yelled out, "Just a minute!" She looked into the decorated mirror in her office and sighed in angst while looking at herself wrap her hair into a messy bun. It was to her delight only when some of her guests that came in noticed it and remarked how intricate the design was—as the borders held a laughing dragon with cherry blossom petals floating around it—don't ask how she got it. The "keepsake" was only there for situations like these, so when she sounded crazy from beyond her mahogany door, at least she didn't look crazy after opening that very door.

Some wet stuff was on her cheek and she guessed it was the remaining drool from her nap. Rolling her eyes she wiped it off and looked at the image that showed behind her. Her nice _new_ imported desk that was set to match all the other furniture in the room including her door was smashed in half. Papers were all over her floor surrounding the wooden mess; complimented with lots of white-out, stamps, and pens, her rainbow slinky… wow she forgot she even had that, and lots of other crap she had missed in her time as newest head doctor of Konoha Hospital. She blinked and let out a silent scream as she would be the one to clean up and no one else. Taking one last look in the mirror for any flaws of appearance she cracked open her door and peered out of it to be face to face with Ino.

"Is… everything alright? I heard you screaming and thought you were fighting oni or something," the blonde asked raising a brow to Sakura's overly bright demeanor. "Um, nothing, just so much to do in so little time, y'know? Eh, heh," Sakura lied to her one time rival and female best friend. Ino showed her skepticism on her face but said nothing standing on her tiptoes to see what was behind her boss. Sakura moved in the same position, then Ino shifted from left to right, but Sakura did the same blocking her view of the war zone behind her. Ino shrugged and settled down her curiosity handing her a huge folder that was bulging with even more work. "Well… sorry to say you maybe doing overtime. These need approval _today_," Ino announced stressing the much hated deadline. Sakura's mouth dropped open much to the glee of the other kunoichi who returned Sakura's, as Naruto called it, "Sub-Zero Smile" and turned around to walk down the hall towards the elevator.

Sakura blinked and looked at the folder that lay in her hands, mocking her. She glared at it waiting for it to beckon her further into punishing her new target of letting out steam but it didn't. She backed right back up into her door taking the cursed thing back with her and cursed Ino behind her back, because the folder was pink.

Preview: He turned his head just for the sake of not hearing Naruto's loud irritating voice that well over gave him the headache he now had. For a few seconds he couldn't breathe, think, or speak—not that he did a lot of that anyway but…—and it took him a few more seconds to tell his body and mind to reboot because of what his ever so sharp eyes showed him. What did his eyes see that literally took away a couple of very important bodily functions? Sakura: that's what. It wasn't the fact that _she_ was reason for his apparent shock it was her appearance. Her body was wet and her face was a little flushed from heat. Tendrils of pink hair fell down and defined her face more that didn't seem too tired the last time he saw her. In fact she looked _beautiful_. Whoa… back up a minute. Uchiha Sasuke was never stupid. He knew as a child, that Sakura was a very cute girl and would grow up past that cuteness, but it was still a shock to him that his mind thought she was beautiful. This was the girl he never gave the time of day… It didn't take a genius to know that she had just gotten out of the shower because a towel was wrapped around her person very loosely and hung off her chest and hips a little, too suggestively. It stopped short a little too high above her creamy thighs. He swallowed a lump down his throat and looked away as she looked Naruto up and down asking, "What the hell do you two want?"

(A/N: Long preview, ne? And a longer chapter, I'm so happy I was able to update. Things have been so hectic lately and all I ever seem to do these days is work. It really bites. Please review. I know it's been a long time that I've updated and believe me… I've been depressed as of late to know that everyone else in is having more fun than I am writing.)


	3. Mi Casa Es Su Casa

(A/N: Hi, It's me ViOlEt KaT! Um… what was I gonna say again?)

**Disclaimer: Why do I have to do this? Everyone knows I can't own anything for life.**

**Title: Tough Love**

**Chapter 3: Mi Casa es Su Casa**

What exactly is so important about living anyway? He knew a lot of people busted their asses to get him back home alive. Some almost lost their lives, way of lives, and other things that had to do with life. Let's face it. He didn't ask them to save him from near execution and he really wasn't all that grateful either. Lately he's been feeling kind of suicidal due to the mass attention he's been getting ever since he got out of the hospital a couple of days ago. It seems as if his fangirls had never evaporated in his absence because as soon as he walked out those doors with Naruto, a whole crowd of them were at the foot of the stairs squealing, cheering, and holding up signs of crazed infatuation. Instead of sympathizing with him, Naruto laughs and states, "Welcome back, pretty boy." Sasuke directed a glare at them and his friend especially.

Naruto was immune to this particular facial expression so it didn't work on him, but it made most of his fangirls run away much to his delight. The bolder ones stayed and ogled him as he walked down the street towards the market. He followed Naruto to the marketplace because he had no choice since he was to be, at all times, with one of his previous teammates for his 3 year probation. Cursing the council he caught up to Naruto till they were side to side and growled out, "Can't your ramen wait, Naruto?" Naruto spared Sasuke a nonchalant glance then slowly smiled, "Didn't know you were so eager to start living with Sakura, teme. Don't worry, I'll hurry up my business in less than an hour, then you can have her to yourself." Sasuke snorted in disgust and looked away making Naruto snicker.

Their first stop was at Ichiraku's where they were going to predictably eat ramen. But what was unpredictable was the one waiting for them. Naruto's fiancée, Hinata was waving to them when spotting them a couple of feet away. Always the ever observant one, he surmised Hinata in a quick glance. Her dark purple hair was long and reached all the way down to her backside where it met in a loose ponytail like her elder first cousin, Neji, who was guarding Sasuke's hospital room the whole time he was there. She was clad in a very form fitting traditional violet kimono that covered a very full and round figure and wore a little make-up, which reminded him of Sakura. Speaking of which he hadn't seen her since he woke up, Naruto had told him that she was very busy because someone came home, Sasuke had shrugged because… well he just didn't care. What he did care about was the current fact that she would be living with him…or the other way around. Whichever you prefer. He preferred the former. It's his male ego, go with it.

Hinata bowed down upon greeting him, "Hello Sasuke-san, it's very nice to see you with Naruto like this again. He hasn't been this happy for awhile." Sasuke didn't say anything but inclined his head in respect and stole a glance at Naruto trying to hold down an embarrassed blush down but failing and whined out, "Wha?! Hinata-chaaaaan, I'm not happy, I'm relieved that I don't have to take care of the teme in my apartment that's all. He'll be nitpicking at everything. You wouldn't know how much of a neat freak he is!" He explained this while holding a giggling Hinata in a lovable hug nuzzling her neck. She blushed and protested but kept a satisfied smile on her face. Sasuke's conclusion to this very new and very disturbing scene was: They are very much in love but… what does Hinata see in the dobe? Inwardly smirking he ordered his bowl and told the old man it would be on his friend's tab. "Oi, Sasuke-teme you sneaky jerk!"

Sasuke shrugged and sipped his ramen until Kakashi came to tell Naruto that the two needed to go shopping for his clothes unless he wanted to keep letting the latter borrow his own. Sasuke froze with his mouth open and eyes slightly widened and came to a horrifying conclusion. He was wearing the dobe's clothes; the guy that had a pigsty of an apartment, who does laundry every _four_ weeks. "Yeah sure just hold on I have to finish feeding, Hinata-chan," and indeed Naruto was holding chopsticks up to her mouth telling her to open up wide. Sasuke's pores suddenly opened up releasing sweat in heightened panic to the information relayed to him from his former master.

He wanted to be out of these clothes as soon as possible, forget that he was feeding Hinata. "Dobe, let's go," Naruto ignored the blood lust that emitted from Sasuke and said without glancing his direction, "Yeah, yeah, in a minute, teme." Sasuke's eyes twitched in annoyance and he looked to Kakashi who shrugged paying attention but still reading an Icha Icha Paradise book he somehow slipped from his pocket. "Um, N-Naruto-kun. I think you should go. I have to attend a meeting with Lady Hokage in a few minutes and might be going on a mission soon," thanking kami-sama that Naruto would no longer be occupied he pulled Naruto's wallet from his back pocket since his friend was in shock at this new development for his wife to be. He was too much of a shell of a young man to pay any attention to Sasuke. He asked the Ichiraku vendor how much and paid from Naruto's, "Gama-chan," holding it with two fingers he struggled to put it back where he found it. He couldn't believe that Naruto had kept that thing.

For a total of one minute, Naruto was frozen and had his jaw dropped until Sasuke hit the poor blonde upside the head from impatience. Sasuke could've sworn he heard something rattle in there upon giving Naruto a wake-up call. "Itai!" Naruto turned in anger glaring and Sasuke turned the other way as if he was innocent, bullshitting his whole act, waiting for Naruto to wrap it up. Naruto turned around head throbbing and hugged Hinata close, "Okay, I'll see you later Hinata-chan. Be safe, and-," Sasuke rolled his eyes, "could you kiss my boo-boo for me?" Hinata stifled a giggle, "Hai, Naruto-kun." It was official. The dobe had never grown up, Sasuke could care less about what anyone else said or thought. Konoha would have a baby for a Hokage. Turning around he caught a glance of Naruto leaning his head on her chest making her blush while kissing his new bump on the head. Sasuke took a deep breath and counted. 1…2…3…4…

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

Needless to say the rest of the day was uneventful except for the women in the stores that he bought his clothes from. Every time he went into the changing rooms a few of them would try to sneak a peek and he would have to fend them off with a glare that sent most of them off with screeching squeals, the kind that gave major headaches. Some of them still squealed and stayed there while a couple of them just stared and actually drooled. Sasuke would never admit it but he was scared shitless from that type of reaction. So what if he had a muscle toned body? Orochimaru, whom Naruto had dubbed the Pedophilic snake charmer, and his praise was enough. Kakashi and Naruto just sat there in waiting chairs bored out of their minds, except for the times that girls would try to look at Sasuke half naked (where they would howl with laughter ordering another glare and some blood lust to go), and barely tried to help him get away from them. Even in "men's clothing" stores.

"You'd be asking us to commit, suicide, Sasuke. You don't want us to do that now would you?" Kakashi asked with mock fear. The said nin begged to differ. When the second to last of admirers were ushered away Naruto finally announced that, "Sakura would be better security than us teme. She scares the girls. You should've seen her the time we went to a club after celebrating us becoming Anbu. She radiated so much killing intent to the girls that had boyfriends who were flocking to her instead of them that they started to foam at the mouth if they didn't back up." Sasuke looked at Kakashi nervously laughing at the memoir and sort of faltered in his reading pattern. Sasuke raised a brow in question but said nothing. He knew the girl could be scary just not how scary, after all he hadn't seen her for 8 years.

"Alright! On to food!" Naruto exploded in the store causing people to smile and laugh instead of look at him with disgust and whisper behind his back. Sasuke noticed this as he looked around. The people trusted Naruto and loved him unlike his earlier childhood days. It wouldn't surprise him if his friend did become Hokage. He snorted hiding his impressed musing and said, "What are you talking about we already ate ramen." Naruto reached inside his long black and orange jacket pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper that looked stained with oil. His brow furrowed as Kakashi announced, "Yes, you did but you'll be living over at Sakura's for awhile," his blank face gave the eldest nin the impression that he was mentally asking, "And?"  
Kakashi took out his orange book while they started walking over to a grocery store. "Sakura is not only notorious for her looks and reputation but her busy lifestyle as well. In fact, she's so busy that she never really eats at home. She just goes there to sleep. The cupboards are so bare that spiders decided to take residence in them. A shame too since it's one of those luxury apartments in the eastern district," Sasuke stared still confused about the food part. When he saw her earlier in the week she didn't look anemic or anything. The only part of her that looked unhealthy was her face that looked like she hadn't slept in awhile. "It kinda sucks that she told us to go shopping for her like this though. If she'd stop going out to eat or getting take-out at her job we wouldn't have to do this," Naruto added while they walked. _'Like he should talk,'_ Sasuke thought. Kakashi chuckled probably thinking the same thing.

Inside the store there were a lot of older women than the one's his age or younger so, believe it or not, he felt—if at all possible—comfortable. He was also aware that they were avoiding his path and talking behind his back but didn't care. Anything was better than the screeches he heard earlier which reminded him of his pounding head. He looked at their surroundings before speaking, they were in the hygienic products aisle and were way too close to what Sasuke identified as tampon boxes and pad packages, and gulped before taking back his assumption of what he thought was comfortable. Kakashi was nowhere in sight and he wished he'd followed him and not Naruto that very moment. No wonder the Hokage smirked mockingly while announcing that he would be sharing living quarters with Sakura. "Naruto…" the said man picked up a particular brand examined it and put it in a cart before responding, "Hm?" They walked a little more before stopping at a certain brand of pads, "I need some aspirin."

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

_'What a pain in the ass,'_ Sasuke thought. They had finished shopping and had now started to go to Sakura's house which happened to be all the way across town. With groceries, a vast amount of them, that happened to be very heavy. As if his clothes wasn't enough… Yet he still didn't get his aspirin. It was in one of those godforsaken bags that either he or Naruto was carrying yet he couldn't get to them because of all the crap he had in his hands. Kakashi decided to make up an excuse that he had something to do and equally dumped his load onto the two younger ninja halfway. _'Why does she have to live so damn far away from the market? She used to be right there…'_ he remembered while following Naruto who was struggling between looking at his directions and holding his bags. Then Naruto suddenly stopped and yelled out to someone walking across the street making Sasuke's eye twitched and his body shuddered as if he had a spasm. His head literally felt like it was going to split. "Oi, Ass! Get over here and help us with Sakura's stuff, would-ja?" Sasuke peaked over his mountain of purchases only to see almost a mirror image of himself glancing at them indifferently.

Sai's eyes met with Sasuke's for a brief moment, gave a fake smile in greeting (Sasuke just narrowed his eyes), then looked away to a sketch book he was currently holding. For some strange reason he didn't like that guy. It could be the fact that he was his temporary stand in for Team Kakashi—which by the way he still is—but then again Sasuke could care less about positions. He really wasn't in a hurry to reunite with his old team or much less join one at all despite his temporary suspension from Leaf ninja status until further notice. "Why dickless? Her place is right there." He continued to walk on and ignored the obscenities screeching from the blonde's mouth making Sasuke wish he was dead so he would at last have some peace and quiet. At least that's what he thought of whenever hearing eternal rest. "Dobe, just hurry the hell up," after experiencing a minute of deadpan silence Sasuke thought he was dreaming (his whole day was, sadly, full of noise) but was proved wrong when Naruto just decided to turn his dirty loud mouth towards him. He fought the urge to drop all the groceries he was carrying—because they were the ones that could break easily or rather Naruto could break effortlessly—and punch his friend/rival/enemy (?) into a nearby brick wall to shut him up.

He turned his head just for the sake of not hearing Naruto's loud irritating voice that well over gave him the headache he now had. For a few seconds he couldn't breathe, think, or speak—not that he did a lot of that anyway but…—and it took him a few more seconds to tell his body and mind to reboot because of what his ever so sharp eyes showed him. What did his eyes see that literally took away a couple of very important bodily functions? Sakura: that's what. It wasn't the fact that _she_ was reason for his apparent shock it was her appearance. Her body was wet and her face was a little flushed from heat. Tendrils of pink hair spilled down from a towel that was wrapped in a turban above her head and defined her face more that didn't seem too tired the last time he saw her. In fact she looked _beautiful_.

Whoa… back up a minute. Uchiha Sasuke was never stupid. He knew as a child, that Sakura was a very cute girl and would grow up past that cuteness, but it was still a shock to him that his mind thought she was beautiful. This was the girl he never gave the time of day… It didn't take a genius to know that she had just gotten out of the shower because a towel was wrapped around her person very loosely and hung off her chest and hips a little, too suggestively. It stopped short a little too high above her creamy thighs. He swallowed a lump down his throat and looked away as she looked Naruto up and down asking, "What the hell do you two want? You're loud."

Sakura snuck a glance at Sasuke who just looked off to the side. He looked like he didn't want to be here. What luck would kami-sama have the audacity to grace her with, that they both had come into concordance of thought. Maybe if things went bad during his stay she could get him out before the week ended. "You know what we're here for Sakura-chan. The teme's moving in with you whether you like it or not," Naruto answered her question trying to get a grip on the groceries he was carrying. He looked as if he was going to drop them all in one fell swoop if the slightest movement of an outside force decided to just pass through. Sakura huffed blowing a stray streak of pink hair away from her eyes, folded her arms and leaned on the door post. "Last time I checked I still had two more hours to myself."

Sasuke faced her this time trying to ignore the way her arms seemed to push her chest higher making her cleavage look more inviting. "Sorry that's not the case, but unless you want the perishables to rot when we come after your, "Me-time," I suggest you let us in," he said. Sakura looked at him and smirked as if she couldn't believe his nerve. She pushed herself off the door post and backed up to let them in, "Very well," she complied a little too calmly than he thought she would but guessed her overall bitterness had washed over. Since Naruto seemed a little hesitant to come into her house with all his baggage, literally, Sasuke decided to enter inside first. Sakura stopped backing up right to where the door ended and grabbed the edge of it. He stared and she once again glared. Sasuke raised a brow at her sudden change of emotion. She slammed the door in his face just as he was about to take another step. The door was only a centimeter away from his nose.

Eyes wide and looking at the plane of wood that could've gave him a world of hurt and heard her yell beyond it, "Get real, asshole!" His stunned demeanor slowly darkened as he scowled and his eyes narrowed. He turned towards Naruto who looked as if this was an everyday event, like it was nothing new under the sun. "What the hell's her problem?" Naruto sighed and put down a few bags down on her stoop so he could stand up straight. "That's a pretty dumb question coming from you. Don't you remember what you did to her? She's not like me and Kakashi-sensei, she'll forgive but she never forgets." Honestly he thought she was acting like an overgrown spoiled brat. Talk about a grudge. What she had was much deeper if this was just the tip of the iceberg. Still, just because you don't like or, let's say, even hate someone it doesn't mean you have to show them how much. He's learned that over the years and the lesson has saved him in more ways than one. But right now his time was being wasted by her because she didn't like him. It's not his fault he was stuck in her house. Believe him, he didn't like the fact that he had to live with one of his ex-fangirls either, even if she was undeniably attractive.

Sasuke transferred some bags to one hand so the other would be free reminding him how strenuous the whole day had been so far making him even more annoyed. He banged on the door four times with his fist rather hard until the door swiftly opened. She caught it with her hand and squeezed it threatening to break the bones within his hand but he never once showed a grimace of pain. All he did was hold bags and glare back. "Uh hey can you two at least move? This is kind of gettin' heavy. I can't feel my arms," Naruto complained looking bored. Apparently he was used to her picking fights while Sasuke was away. It bothered the said man as Sakura pushed Sasuke and the weight he was carrying along with him away from her door. Naruto stepped inside somehow wedging in between Sakura, still donned in a cotton white towel, and the open space to her house.

Meanwhile Sasuke was on the ground having an eye witness number total of one of his humiliation. Sai was still there leaning on a wall of a building, sketching, and from time to time looking at the whole scene. "Hey ugly, make sure you don't kill him over here. I disdain blood on my drawings," Sakura didn't react as she would have. All her vision showed her was Sasuke who was helping himself up emitting a dark aura. "Watch yourself your highness just because the council pardoned you it doesn't mean that me and my men have," in that instant several Anbu personnel surrounded him in fighting stances. The air was thick with tension. _'I could easily take them all out but I guess that would pose a problem for the dobe and Kakashi,'_ he analyzed activating his eyes and keeping tabs on their movements. He stole a glance at Sakura who looked smug but was absolutely scowling at the victory.

A few more seconds passed by and all of a sudden Naruto's blonde mess of spikes popped out of Sakura's doorway. "Hey guys!" He waved and smiled as if nothing was wrong, making some of them drop their guard. Sasuke considered taking advantage of the situation to attack and make a beeline for Sakura but thought better of it and stood where he fell. "Why don't you help me put these groceries in your Co-captain's fridge? The teme can carry his own stuff don't worry," they hesitated for awhile looked at each other and shrugged walking towards the door. Sasuke could hear them going to work as Sakura shot Naruto a deadly look. "C'mon in Sasuke, she won't bite… much," Naruto invited him while looking at Sakura the whole time who was positively peeved. It made sense that Naruto overruled her authority and for once gave Sasuke a sense of comfort as weird as it sounded. She pushed past the Anbu captain making him fall over onto the ground with a yelp and slammed the door once again.

Sasuke stared at Naruto with an annoyed demeanor. Comfort? Yeah, right. "Well, I guess we'll come back in two hours like she said. I wanted a chance to spar with you ever since you came back anyway. I've been swamped with work earlier but now I'm free, so let's go before someone comes to me and needs me to approve icky paperwork." Sasuke looked at his bags that had fallen along with him awhile ago, "…I don't feel like it." Naruto deflated at his rejection and willowed over to his best friend, "Eh, but why? I've been looking forward to this," he whined. Sasuke scowled and turned towards the kyuubi container, "I can't just leave my stuff here on the street and some of her shit will spoil." Naruto blinked and looked taken aback for awhile until the wheels in his head, if there were any, started to turn again.

"Well if that's all you're worried about, no prob. Oi, Sai, can you make sure the rest of the stuff gets into the house _immediately_ _before_ we come back?" Naruto stressed those two words as if it had to be specified to the one-time Sasuke replacement. As if he would spitefully fulfill the orders in the most careless and work-free way. Sai looked up from his drawings straight into Sasuke's eyes, and then he looked down at the book again sketching some more details before he closed it and moved towards the bags. He picked all of them up effortlessly and brought them to the door and wouldn't you know it? The door was never locked! Sasuke's eyebrow twitched in irritation. Sneaking a glance over at Naruto within the curtain of his bangs he saw him walking away from Sakura's house.

"C'mon, teme! We've only got 2 hours!" Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Naruto was way too skillful to avoid her wrath as of late. If he remembered correctly he was the one to receive her pounds to the head and insults.

He looked up at a window where light seemed to stream from the room. Three seconds later she appeared and looked down. Her eyes widened in disbelief seeing him still there, he also saw that she was in her bra and her hair was now free of the towel she was using to dry it with. Her pink tresses were now hanging down in curls and he caught a distinct red hue coloring her cheeks while she glared down at him. He took a deep breath and quickly looked towards the direction Naruto disappeared and started walking. There was just no way he was attracted to her. It wasn't a possibility. He kept repeating this unsaid mantra in his mind but no matter how many times he did, he knew something was off.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

Sakura's Peridot eyes followed Sasuke until he was out of sight then grabbed her curtains and pulled them closed so she could have some privacy, or rather some sense of comfort to hide her thoughts. Even though Sai and her kohai happened to be down stairs in her house she yelled out, "Just what the hell was he looking at?!" She stomped to her mirror and grabbed the hair dryer she had just plugged in. She just wanted to grab a breath of fresh air from the window until she saw him looking up at her as if he expected her to appear there. As if having a stressful day at the hospital filling out paperwork in the cursed pink folder wasn't bad enough. He even had the nerve to lecture her at her door, what right did he think he had doing that? Those were her groceries and she was willing to give up her "me-time" as he called it, to let him live here. He should've been thankful.

She started up the appliance in her hands and looked at the mirror in the corner seeing Sai appear in her doorway, upon seeing that she finally noticed him he stated, "He was looking at you," she sucked her teeth and looked at her own reflection drying her hair. Sai came up from behind her observing, "A lot of people look at you, you know. It shouldn't be a surprise," She looked at his eyes that were so much like the ones that left. "Your point?" she asked, irritated that she allowed herself to think those thoughts. She watched him put his hands on her shoulders and started to move them along her blades and overall back. She stretched a little moaning in response to the massage, "None, it's just that you've been a bit more irritable these days, especially when he came back, that's all I'm saying." It was getting hard to pay attention to dry her hair while being pampered by Sai. Usually he doesn't do this anymore mainly due to him going out with Ino who happens to get very jealous. Even before he did go out with the said "Pig" he was hesitant in being nice to her. "You say a lot of things… oh lower, yeah right there," she gave up on blow drying her hair.

Since the discovery of Sai being able to do so many useful and helpful things with his hands he had been lazy because he was always asked to do favors. It was rare of him to be nice and she enjoyed it while she could. During his sweet times people actually thought they got along better than they should've resulting in his periodic mood swings courtesy of Ino. Almost falling asleep she heard Sai say something but couldn't quite make it out,

"Hm? Wussat?" her eyes lowered as she kept an ear open for his repetition.

"I said, you have 3 broken eggs and your jelly spilled out in one of the bags. The jar cracked," his hands stopped working their magic and she sighed missing the bliss that had come and gone in the wind.

She looked at him in the mirror and smiled as if drunk, "I hate eggs anyway and that prick doesn't like sweet things," he gave her a rare real smile as if looking at a sibling he never had, something that had developed in time when being in Team Kakashi.

"You just want an excuse to keep from having to cook. Wait till he gets a load of your tea. I didn't know tea could actually _burn_ till you decided to give me some that day…" he trailed off giving her a teasing smirk.

Sakura gazed at him as she dragged the hair dryer through her floral like tendrils and stuck out her tongue in mock annoyance, "Shut up, you're one of the few who actually had the privilege of seeing me conquer the kitchen," Sai snorted and walked towards the door and said under his breath, not caring if she heard or not, "More like the other way around," he shut the door behind him hearing her call out over the blaring appliance, "Who says I'll give _him_ tea anyway!" Sai snickered going downstairs.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

A huge crowd gathered, to watch two very deadly and powerful shinobi engage in battle. The duo ignored the attention wondering how they were going to defeat the other. There were other figures that stood out for security measures just to make sure the crowd didn't go into a riot surrounding them. They had black cloaks on and the only sense of identity was in their masks that resembled animals. The Anbu, as they were called, were watching their captain spar against his old time friend, a legend in his own right looking at his opponent with a calm gaze and a blood red Sharingan. Their captain gave off a wide grin with his azure eyes twinkling in delight. The both of them hadn't been able to do this in a long time and despite their indifferent or ecstatic faces they were eager to show the other up.

"You first teme," Naruto said grinning from ear to ear. Sasuke looked at his teammate that just gave him an advantage and remembered Naruto always liked to work with a handicap. He smiled and stated, "Hn, your mistake," and disappeared within an instant making the crowd roar, in "ooh's" and "ah's." The noise didn't bother Naruto at all though, he had learned to keep his cool and concentration over the years, and could sure as hell give Sasuke his own indifferent façade back a-hundred-fold. The only problem was that he was so happy and itching for a fight that he couldn't keep that stupid grin off his face. He tuned out all that was around him and focused on where Sasuke could've gone, erasing the unwanted presences and sounds as if they were never there to begin with. Instead it was quiet and the dead of night, all that could be heard was the wind and a few crickets. All that could be seen were the surrounding trees and the majestic sky letting stars light the perfect battleground for a shinobi battle.

Naruto sniffed the air and turned around abruptly meeting Sasuke's fist with a counter attack of his own setting off a huge explosion of wind and electricity. The blonde smirked and disappeared himself only leaving a blur behind to catch up to Sasuke's speed giving the audience something to look at, which were a stream of stunning explosions all over the place strangely resembling fireworks. The audience tried to follow their movements, some shinobi others just pedestrians, few of them were only able to see at least a trace of human movement. Just when they were about to give up, as it seemed impossible to track them, the two ended up in opposite positions. Their faces were either cut or marred with bruises. Both looked at each other somewhat satisfied at the other's development.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes resisting the sensation of his eyes willing to change the tides of this battle but he held it back. This fight wasn't till the death, it was for fun. Still he held his head with his hand in concentration feeling one of his Sharingan change disobeying his wishes. Something was wrong… for him to lose control at all was unheard of. "What's the matter Sasuke? Giving up already?" Naruto taunted bringing out a scroll of sorts from his kunai pouch. He growled at his blonde friend's impatience well aware that something was wrong but decided to play it out anyway. "If that's how it should go then so be it," Sasuke thought, feeling the Anbu tense under the way his chakra was going up and down. Some of the crowd was oblivious but most were on high alert. The dark haired prodigy frowned at the facts and deactivated his eyes for a safety measure.

The Anbu calmed down a bit but still became wary of what he would do next. "Put that back dobe. If I can't have my kusanagi or any other weapon, you shouldn't either," he said smirking. Naruto looked at him bewildered and disappointed… he forgot baa-chan banned him from having any weapons in his custody… well that sucks. He wouldn't try anything with Anbu spying on him 24/7, he was sure of it. Naruto grudgingly did what he was told and mumbled under his breath looking at Sasuke ready his ninjutsu that somehow looked familiar. He saw the hand signs horse and tiger and widened his eyes. He himself started his own jutsu and took a deep breath expanding his chest's shape and just as it seemed as if he'd explode he completed his jutsu, "Water Style: Water Dragon no Jutsu," as Sasuke blew out his counter part from his mouth simultaneously, "Fire Style: Fire Dragon no Jutsu." The two elements took form of the ancient reptiles and charged forward according to their summoning entwined with each other reaching out towards the sky until finally biting down on each others forms.

Dispelling each other as the elements clashed together all that was seen after that was steam spread over the forest. Naruto and Sasuke took the opportunity to charge at each other with the lowest forms of their ultimate attacks as if they were once again 12 but faltered in their steps and brought down their hands that held both Chidori and Rasengan once they saw a familiar figure transport into the middle of their paths. Kakashi turned a page of his insidious book as the dirt erupted on either sides and almost soiled his whole entire uniform but he took a few steps dodging all of the earth that aimed for his book. It was a few minutes of the younger shinobi catching their breaths before Naruto looked up from his crouched position and yelled, "Why'd you stop us, Kakashi-sensei?!" Sasuke wanted the answer as well: they had barely even started. Kakashi looked from side to side looking at their expectant faces. "Well I just wanted to tell you that your time here was up. Those two hours are gone and Sakura's _trying_ to patiently wait for you two. She has a mission you know," he casually stated letting his black eye settle on his book once again.

Naruto yelled, "Oh, shit! I forgot!" and scrambled to his feet panicking and yelled at the teme to get up unless he wanted to live in the street for a whole week. Sasuke raised a brow. She had a mission? Then why was she so miffed about having any time to herself before he was able to move in? He had a feeling she wouldn't be home at all during his stay there since he was told that both of his teammates were very busy every single day. But that didn't explain her childish antics to get him to stay away from her. He knew right off the bat, when he woke up that she didn't want to have anything to do with him. Naruto told one of them monitoring Anbu to help by going ahead and telling their co-captain that they'd be there in no time. The nin bowed and disappeared in a cloud of smoke to complete his task. Meanwhile they were running through the streets of Konoha dodging slow unsuspecting citizens of the village to the eastern district.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

Sakura tapped her foot on the floor looking at the clock. They were 15 minutes late and to top it off she sent Kakashi to go look for them to bring their stupid asses back only to have a messenger come here to tell her they were coming. Sai and 3 other Anbu had left for home already and she was supposed to start her mission right now with Hinata, Ino, and Tenten to go to the Village-hidden-in-the-Clouds for some stupid recon mission. She was the leader for this mission dammit! It didn't look good when the leader was late. She was not her ex-sensei and had no intention to pick up his habits. Just then the two awaited nin burst through the door and collapsed on her floor in a dirty heap of cuts, bruises, and dirt. Her eye twitched, she just mopped that floor. "Get off dobe," Sasuke muttered with difficulty. Sure enough Naruto was on top of his back for what only kami-sama knew.

Sensing that Naruto was too tired and scared shitless to move Sasuke pushed himself off the floor making Naruto roll onto the floor and having more dirt spread on her nice mahogany wooden floor. Just above he felt killing intent so heavy that he could taste it in the air. He looked up at her, arms crossed, foot doing that annoying tapping thing, and chest heaving dangerously. He stood up berating himself for lying on the floor once again in front of _her_ and wondering if Sai was still around. Naruto was still on the ground but was on his hands and knees, still catching his breath… or nerve. Sasuke could hear his friend gulp and clumsily get up. Despite the growing tension a wind blew through the door trying to calm the blonde's nervous demeanor. "Heh, sorry we're late Sakura-chan. We were trying to find the perfect spot to spar and were delayed by traffic coming back," he claimed as true to their story as he could.

The one unaware of just how mad she was looked around her house. Just like Kakashi had said earlier, the place was gorgeous, and huge. The floor for the hall way and living room was in polished dark hardwood floor surrounded by red walls littered with pictures, decorative masks, and awards. At the end of the hallway there was a piano colored pristine white in another room and was accompanied by a stool identical to the piano that stood before it. The living room had 3 black couches surrounding a colossal flat screen TV and a glass table was sitting in middle having a dragon engraved in silver on its borders. There was a white carpet under the table that resembled the print on the table in black. He looked to his left seeing a white door that led to another room. He figured she did alright by herself while he was gone and wondered what upstairs looked like. "Take off your shoes," he heard her say. He looked at her viridian eyes peer up at him dead set on making him hear the rules of this household before she left him in it. No wonder why she was iffy about him being here.

He did as he was told calmly, which he would love to think of as a suggestion. He hated being ordered around. He heard Naruto do this as well as she started speaking looking her right in the eye as she looked at him indifferently. "First off, this is my house. If I find even a speck of dirt on the floor or walls or floors I'm not only gunning for your traitorous ass I'm getting Naruto's too." Naruto whined, "What?!" Sakura ignored him. It was obvious that in this place there was only a queen with an iron fist. King's did not exist in this world. "By the way you better clean up what you did to my floor," Sasuke looked down behind him. Sure enough there was mud all over the plane they decided to crash on. He looked at Naruto as if telling him to do it. Naruto narrowed his blue eyes to tell him, "You wish." Shrugging he turned back to Sakura who continued, "Your room is upstairs beyond the black door. Mine, which you are banned from entering in, is the door adjacent from yours. The first door on the right is the bathroom and the one further down is the guest room."

He looked up at the stairs to his right. They were in white carpet and surround by baby blue walls that turned so he would have to go upstairs to see his room. "The kitchen is to the left where you will cook your meals. Even when I'm here you should not expect me to feed you. Those groceries are as close to me feeding you as you can get. The basement is beyond the kitchen you can't miss it. That's where the washing machine and dryer are. You'll be monitored by Anbu whether inside or outside the house at all times until I deem that you don't need to be babysat. Frankly, I believe you're a grown man and can take care of yourself, but these are the precautions set by the ones that wanted you dead. Deal with it." He saw Naruto out of the corner of his eye disappear into the kitchen and come back out with a mop and bucket. He looked back at Sakura who was now glaring, "Let's get one thing straight here. You are a guest in this house and you will not do whatever you please. That includes telling me off in my own home. If you don't like me telling you what to do or how I live here you can make a 180 degree turn for that door you burst through. Is that clear?"

He blinked in response, bored already, and nodded before stepping away from Naruto who was making more of a mess. He went for the steps in an attempt to get away from being splashed and hearing Sakura yell at the idiotic blonde. Finally reaching the top he rubbed his hands through his dark locks massaging his scalp trying to expel his headache and spotted the door to his room. He was shocked to see that the door was donned with his clan's symbol and looked at the other doors. Sakura's door was red and held her symbol in white as well. The one across from his was orange and held Naruto's swirl of red and black as well. Did she do that before or after he came back? He looked at the door that she told him was the bathroom and opened it. It was the only one that looked normal because it was white and held no symbol.

Inside, the place was littered with white marble. He flicked the light switch up as he stepped inside and it showed him the sink, shower, bathtub in black marble. The ceiling was littered with lights similar to ones in the hospital room he was in. He looked above the sink finding a mirror that also served as a cabinet. Sasuke narrowed his dark eyes at his reflection activating his eyes to see what was wrong. The Sharingan was trying to reassemble itself into the Mangekyou without his permission. He could see the tomoe swirl around until they resembled three connected blades. Just like his brothers… Fighting the urge to break the mirror he felt someone watching him from beyond the door and looked straight at Sakura. She stared back as if trying to figure him out. "Looking for this?" she asked holding out her open hand. It held his aspirin. He deactivated his eyes and felt them water in strain.

"Hn," he reached for the bottle and took it out of her hands. She continued to look at him as he opened it and shook 2 pills out onto his awaiting hand and shoved them into his mouth. Turning the faucet on he felt her viridian eyes scrutinize his profile and cupped his hands letting the water fall onto them and brought the water to his mouth to swallow the medicine in his mouth. He turned the faucet off and looked towards the door mimicking her actions. She was in all red like she always was but her outfit was different. She had on white gloves that went all the way up to the end of her shoulders embroidered with a red cherry blossom pattern showing off her Anbu tattoo. Naruto wasn't lying. Her red dress was no longer a dress. Instead it was a form fitting jumpsuit with an open collar that also served as a hood and the apex for a zipper that went all the way down to her cycling red shorts. There was a white belt that surrounded her waist and hung off her hips lopsided carrying her medical pouch.

Instead of black knee high open toe boots she had white ones that matched her gloves. Her hair was in a spiked bun held by chopsticks and she had on red lipstick and eye shadow almost hidden by thick pink bangs that he didn't remember her having in her face. All in all she pulled off the sexy deadly kunoichi look. Hearing her throat clear up to get him to stop inspecting her he smirked at her peeved expression while looking up at her face. "Stop doing that," she demanded. He cocked his head in mock puzzlement and reached for the light switch to the bathroom hovering purposely over her form. She growled standing her ground not intimidated in the least by his actions. "What am I doing?" He asked looking down at her. He was a whole two feet taller than her and it made her seethe. "Looking at me," she responded with a cold voice and looked up into his dark obsidian eyes that looked amused.

"Sorry but I can't help but look. Your wearing such a bright color that makes you stand out and captures my attention," he leaned forward until there noses touched. She didn't like blush like she would have when they first became genin. Sasuke was almost disappointed that she was the only one in Team 7 that had changed drastically. Black met green as he put his other hand on the door. Sakura couldn't believe that he was acting like a common thug. It became dark as Sasuke turned off the light suddenly. Sakura could barely make out his face until he activated his blood red eyes. He saw her glare and opens her mouth to retort something back at him but was interrupted by Naruto yelling for her to tell her that she had to leave. She growled under her breath while turning around and stormed to the stairs.

He looked at her back that surprisingly wasn't covered by the red material. A tattoo made itself known on her porcelain skin. It looked like a cherry blossom but it was surrounded by what he recognized as a seal. He blinked watching her disappear beyond the stairs. Sasuke suddenly wondered why he was going to hate living here in the first place. Especially if the only thing that happened to be a punishment was seeing her bare skin…

Preview: The Anbu stood up in high alert. They were well aware of the presence behind the door. It was pretty weak but they couldn't take any chances. Sasuke looked at the door knob turn and walked to the kitchen to go check on his dinner. Beyond the door he heard them exclaim, "Haruno-sama?!" There was no answer for a long time leaving him curious, then he barely heard her mutter, "Your dismissed," but one of them protested saying, "But your wounds… Uchiha won't have a proper-," The microwave sounded with a ding and he pushed the button to open the door. He brought out the dish and almost dropped it when hearing her boom, "GET OUT!" He heard them scramble out the door then she swore loudly as something fell to the ground. Licking his almost burnt finger after he put his meal down on the counter, he walked to the open door and widened his eyes in shock. She was covered in blood and some of it dropped to floor from her soaked hair in the pungent liquid. There were deep gashes all over her body. Unsure if she was okay he cautiously walked over to her keep an eye on her hands. One of them looked broken.

(A/N: Well… what do you think? I think it was too long…)


	4. Make Yourself at Home

(A/N: I've been gone so long! What the heck is the matter with me? By the way I'm changing this to a mature rated story right after this chapter. Sorry if it's an inconvenience but I just can't help putting… erm, mature themes (?) in my stories.)

Disclaimer: Why do I have to do this? Everyone knows I can't own anything for life.

Title: Tough Love

Chapter 4: Make Yourself at Home

Like Naruto had earlier mentioned the day she left, Sakura was gone for the whole week and he was bored out of his mind. Anybody he was remotely close to was busy and it bothered him that he couldn't do anything time consuming while they were away. Sasuke tried to watch TV but found the shows, during the day or night, insipid. He even tried to watch some of the movies in her home theatre collection but they were mostly sappy chick flicks and cheesy horror films. Booooooring. He highly doubted that he would've been so stagnant had he been executed. There were times that his attention was wrapped up in something important like cooking or avoiding the windows. Now that was stimulating.

Didn't the woman ever hear of blinds? The silk curtains she had were so transparent that anyone could see through them. In fact "anyone" included his fangirls that had caught wind of his staying at the Haruno household. What's worst is that they also knew that the owner wasn't home, she never was anyway. He was just minding his own business, doing one-handed push-ups, when all of a sudden he felt a tremor, for 30 seconds, under his hand. It suddenly stopped and he thought nothing of it. Then he heard something akin to a high pitched squeal from outside. Looking towards the window where he heard the noise he almost dropped from his position face first in a panic. A whole swarm of them was smiling and giggling at him. He raised a brow as if asking, "What the hell are you looking at?" only to be immediately answered with instant drool and more squealing.

"It's true! Sasuke-kun really is here! Oh my gawd, he's topless!" He was unmoving and still in his earlier position as he slowly frowned. What was the big deal? Summer had just started and it was intolerably hot. He just had the window open to let in what little breeze that decided to pass by. Kakashi told him not to use the air conditioner. Sakura had left behind even more instructions he didn't know of. As if the ones she left behind weren't trivial enough. "Kya! Did you see? He looked at me! What are you talking about? He was looking at me! Nuh-uh, he was looking at me!" et cetera, et cetera. Of all the predatory, idiotic, weak-minded…

He was appreciative, as alarming as it was to him self, that they were so riveted in their frenzied argument about who he was looking at because he was able to shut the window and lock it without them noticing. Ten seconds later after they realized his feat they popped up in the other one and he was so angry that he activated his blood-line limit to get them to back up so he could lock that one too, burning up chakra, much to his provocation. There was a cycle as they appeared in every single one of the windows he came across triggering the necessity in him to lock all of them. It didn't stop them though. After every single window had been shut and locked they could still see through the glass and curtains. Growling under his breath he, although not looking like it, desperately tried to look for a place where he wouldn't have some peace and quiet. He was about to head for the basement in mid step but halted as soon as he remembered something about Sakura's room.

Those curtains of hers. When he looked up at her window that night he was pretty sure no one could see through them. They were pretty thick too as he remembered them billowing in the moonlight and making noise from the wind as they did so. He also remembered that she forbade him from going into her room, "Unless," she told him, "I let you in." His eye twitched, but this was an emergency… sort of. He shrugged and started for the door but paused at the sight of doorknob. She wouldn't… would she? Something wasn't right… he figured she would take more steps to protect her only object of privacy. Or maybe he trusted her? Screw it. He went downstairs to get one of his shoes at the doorway ignoring the hoots, hollers, and gestures from the female teenage population then came back up. He neared the red door cautiously to her room as if there was an alarm somewhere that could be tripped. Honestly Sasuke didn't know why he bothered to take such an extreme measure for his comfort but… what the hell.

He tapped his sandal on the shiny brass door knob and instantly, electricity filled the air and almost immediately liquefied the rubber on the shoe. His eye narrowed at the sight in contempt. She really didn't trust him and… she was crazy. What if he touched it by accident? Despite the unlikely possibility of that actually happening he mentally cursed her paranoia anyway. What else was in this house that could kill him? 'I can't believe she actually electrocuted it,' he mused before sniffing burned rubber and looking down. He scoffed at the former black sole melting off the doorknob and ignored the sizzling sounds as it fell onto the white carpet.

He considered for a moment that Sakura would throw a fit at the mark on the expensive fabric that was mostly like permanent. Forget her, he just bought this sandal and its twin just last week, white and black went together anyway. "Do you have no regard for regulations?" a voice asked from behind. He sighed and turned around slowly, 'So he finally says something only to reprimand me,' he was aware of Hyuuga Neji's presence for awhile but didn't bother pointing it out. The long haired shinobi leaned on the wall not really facing him with his head down and eyes closed. His mask, resembling an eagle, was stationary on his hip. Sasuke could tell he was still looking at him red-handed because the veins surrounding his eyes were bulging out of the skin like they usually did whenever activated. Sasuke had heard that there were two lieutenants within the Anbu accordingly with both co-captains. Neji was Naruto's lieutenant… Sai was Sakura's. The latter had transferred from the Anbu's, ROOT division, something he had never even heard of.

Ignoring the question that Naruto's future cousin-in-law asked he walked past him. After all, the Hyuuga already knew the answer. Instead he asked, "Where's Naruto?" There was a long pause before the Hyuuga answered. Obviously over being disregarded Neji let it slide, "In his office doing paperwork, why?" Sasuke could almost imagine Naruto pulling out his own long blonde spikes and screaming for mercy within the confines of a tiny office. He opened the door to his own room, snatched a piece of paper and wrote on it with a pencil stating, "Dobe: I need new sandals, get some after work," and folded the note twice. He gave it to Neji without worrying about him reading it, just because Sasuke wasn't considerate didn't mean that the Byakugan user was the same.

He handed the paper over to Neji and said, "Give that to him," who raised a brow. Was that an order? He only took requests. He didn't take the note right away implying that he was being rude. He wasn't a servant. Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he reworded his "demand," almost gagging as he spit out the word, "…please," out of his mouth. Neji smirked and took the paper almost immediately out of his hands gracefully with two fingers just to annoy him, Sasuke was sure, and teleported leaving a shadow in his wake. He glared at the spot the prodigy stood… then headed for the basement in hopes of refuge.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

The rest of the week was uneventful. Sasuke made no more attempts to open Sakura's bedroom door. It wasn't as if he was dying to go in and see what was behind it anyway. Naruto, once gaining the knowledge of the earlier incident, said that he, Sai, and Kakashi were allowed to go in themselves without knocking and grinned at his long time friend/rival when giving Sasuke his shoes the next day where they sparred. Sasuke overlooked the mockery behind the words and got revenge after he put them on. Burnt blonde hair courtesy of the, ever so familiar, Katon no Jutsu. Anbu still monitored their fights in private areas and Sasuke hadn't experienced any current problems with his Sharingan.

Saturday, Hinata had come by to remind her fiancée that he was to get ready for dinner with Hiashi. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that! Thanks, Hina-chan, what would I do without you?" He fawned over her and craned his neck for a kiss or two completely embarrassing her and ignoring Sasuke. The guy had no shame especially when passerby's stared at the scene and laughed or "awed." Outsiders only encouraged him. Sasuke had never felt so uncomfortable watching… "love" like that. They were like two parents kissing in front of their kid without the decency to get a room. He hated feeling awkward whenever Naruto tried to kiss Hinata to death. After the lip lock he had with a very flushed Hyuuga heiress he was about to dive in for some more when her hand placed itself on his mouth as an alternative to her bruised red lips.

"Please stop Naruto-kun, your embarrassing me," her small voice somehow reached the blonde's ears. He halted in his pursuit and took her hands away from his face, pouting. "Oh alright," he whined giving her his famous impish grin and kissing her hands instead making her blush even harder. Sasuke cleared his throat making Naruto turn his head towards him scowling. Hello, earth to Naruto, he existed too and if at all possible was more embarrassed than Hinata. He wanted to go home now. Naruto sighed and told his wife-to-be that he would meet her there and walked off into the direction of Sakura's house with the teme tagging along. "Why does your mood get so sour whenever I'm with Hinata?" he asked all of sudden. Sasuke didn't answer right away noticing the villagers stare at him. No fangirl in sight, "It's because you keep trying to get inside of her pants in front of me. Can't you do that within the confines of your own home? You did say that you were a candidate for Hokage," Naruto sighed, "Well yeah, but I'm not gonna stop just because of a certain role in my life that forces standards that keep me boxed in. I've gotten this far without hiding who I am and…"

Azure eyes caught a small shadow contrasting with the gray skies and looked up to a hawk's flying to the Hokage tower. That was Sakura's messenger bird. Sasuke noticed as well and judging by the way Naruto's carefree demeanor suddenly disappeared, it wasn't good. "What is it?" he asked. "That's Sakura's air mail… remember when I told you that her team came back without her?" Sasuke nodded he had been told that Hinata was in that squad as well. She didn't look too happy, when he saw her, "Well I wanted to give her some time before sending out a search party. Hopefully nothing's wrong. The mission was a success and quicker than anticipated but there was something else that needed her attention." Sasuke didn't feel the least bit concerned. Well maybe a little. He hadn't seen her in action yet so it was hard to imagine that she could handle things all by herself. "But if she's hurt, knowing her she'll probably lie that she's in perfect condition and will be back by tomorrow," Naruto scratched his head, "Translation for, I'm bleeding all over myself and won't submit a mission report until I wake up after collapsing in my bed tonight then come into your office the next day battered and bruised. She used to call me reckless."

Sasuke never knew that Sakura turned into somebody who would face hardships by herself in order to protect others. He looked at his best friend and almost stepped back in surprise at what he saw, those blue of eyes of his saw more than what they let on. Naruto looked ahead, sheepish smile in place, "I think she has too much pride. That and the fact that she's so damn independent and hardworking doesn't help much either. The last guy brave enough to ask her out was Kiba. He was quiet, along with Akamaru, for a whole week. I didn't even think that was possible." Sasuke raised a brow. Sakura was a difficult person? Wasn't that what people used described him as? Come to think of it she did have this air about her that screamed authority and inflexibility when he first saw her in the hospital despite her outward appearance. Didn't she ever get tired of being so high-strung? He mentally shrugged. It had nothing to do with him if she had issues.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

Sure enough his best friend's prediction came true that night. Anbu were inside the house to greet Sakura and make sure she was alright by the order of their "Uzumaki dono." A hurricane was passing the village that night but it was a terrifying one. Every time thunder rumbled the house a few of them twitched. Sasuke wouldn't bring himself so low as to snort in disbelief. This was the highly feared Black Ops? The one's that hunted down their own kind and struck terror in their prey. 'Bite me,' he thought. Lightning didn't seem to bother them that much but there were only a few lights on in the house so whenever it flashed it could've been a trick of the light that they were scared shitless. He figured that they must've been the newest recruits who were still wet behind the ears.

What effect did the storm have on Sasuke? It made him hungry. He reheated some leftovers he made last night. Yes, Uchiha Sasuke cooks. Naruto made fun of him for it, and mentioned something about being Sakura's immediate enemy, but he didn't care. That's how he survived all this time since the massacre. He wasn't Naruto. After almost one whole year of take out, he had had enough, and created the delicacy that was yakisoba… tomato flavored, one of many masterpieces made by the shinobi. Ignoring the jittery masked, gray clad ninja he trudged to the kitchen. He took out last night leftovers from the refrigerator and shoved it into the microwave, then made his way to where the Anbu were. "Someone's coming," he told them coolly and raised a brow when they started to assemble themselves in a panic. What were they so on edge for? It was only her. He considered the idea of them not knowing who it was but shook his head rejecting the thought. They weren't that incompetent… were they?

The Anbu stood up in high alert. They were well aware of the presence behind the door. It was pretty weak but they couldn't take any chances. Sasuke looked at the door knob turn and walked to the kitchen to go check on his dinner. Beyond the door he heard them exclaim, "Haruno-sama?!" There was no answer for a long time leaving him curious, then he barely heard her mutter, "Your dismissed," but one of them protested saying, "But your wounds… Uchiha won't have a proper-," The microwave sounded with a ding and he pushed the button to open the door. He brought out the dish and almost dropped it when hearing her boom, "GET OUT!" He heard them scramble out the door then she swore loudly as something fell to the ground. Licking his almost burnt finger after he put his meal down on the counter, he walked to the open door and widened his eyes in shock. She was covered in blood and some of it dropped to the floor from her hair soaked in the pungent liquid. There were deep gashes all over her body. Unsure if she was okay he cautiously walked over to her keeping an eye on her hands. One of them looked broken.

Not knowing why, he felt compelled to hold out a hand and help her up. His hand was only an inch away from her before she slapped it away with her own broken one, "Don't touch me," she ordered harshly, breathing slightly irregular. Inwardly wincing for her he stared at the stubborn kunoichi who was drenched from head to toe from outside's cruel weather. The blood ran down off of her onto the hardwood floor creating pools of red swirls beneath her. Sasuke didn't move right away. He just stared at her and stood up as she pushed herself off the floor, shaking. Then she closed her eyes in deep concentration.

He noticed that her left hand, the one that wasn't broken, was brought up in a seal and witnessed a peculiar sight. A dragon sprouted upwards, 'Probably, from the tattoo on her back,' he figured and sustained watching as it coiled itself around her limbs and body splitting into smaller dragons. When the marks settled, he perceived a hissing sound and finally backed up a bit when seeing steam rise from her body as she stood up straight. Reflexes kicking in he activated Sharingan that widened almost simultaneously as he saw her skin repairing itself at a rapid rate as if it was no big deal. It was similar to Kabuto's natural regeneration after a wound would appear but different. This ability of hers was artificial and more sufficient.

After the steam dispersed her eyes opened and he deactivated his eyes. The show was over but that didn't stop him from taking heed of her eyes. They caught on a dark shade but looked mesmerizing as she lifted them towards him when a flash of lightning appeared along with a crack of thunder. The phenomenon reminded both of them that the door was still open as the sound of rain once again filled their ears as if on cue. "Is there something on my face that you feel so obligated to look at?" she asked annoyed. Her floral brows drew together signaling a frown but she stopped mid-form, and her eyes, instead of narrowing widened in recognition. 'What smells so good?' she asked herself. Puzzled at first, Sasuke was about to ask what was wrong because she was staring at him weirdly. But he put that aside. First things first, the door needs to be closed.

He made his way over to the exit from whence the pink haired beauty came and she to the kitchen as if under a spell. When returning to where she had retired he was shocked to find her looming over his dish, he was about to protest until she violently turned around with the most dejected look on her face. She said nothing at first but then her stomach spoke for her as it growled at him. He raised a brow at the organ's gurgle as she looked down in mortification. "You cook?" she asked holding her gut. Red ears could be seen poking out from the mass of bloodied floral locks. Sasuke held in a smirk. So she was hungry, huh? "Hn," he replied and moved past her to snatch his food before she did something as desperate as she looked. While moving over to the kitchen table he heard her sigh and trudge out through the other door to the basement. He shrugged, sat down, and started eating.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

Sakura banged on the metal door of the washing machine. That prick! The least he could've done was to offer her some! Her stomach growled again. She would've refused anyway, but the point was that he was so… so… ugh! That's what he was: Ugh. She growled back and smacked her tummy for insurance but it still kept roaring in defiance. The traitorous thing left her vulnerable in the sight of the enemy. Sighing again for the umpteenth time she took off her clothes until her birthday suit was the only thing that was on and threw her bloody clothes into a hamper. She looked around scowling, "Where is it?" and mumbling until she found her bathrobe. After wrapping it around her person she looked for one of those huge comfy t-shirts she loved wearing for pajamas, some underwear; frowning when finding out that all she had were clean thongs, sheets, pillow cases, and a comforter.

It had been awhile since she had slept in her own bed let alone lived with another person. She was no longer the sole inhabitant of this spacious apartment and had to share. That meant no stripping anywhere else other than her room or the bathroom. Her face scrunched up at the thought. Her apartment already felt small. Usually she would journey to the living room couch after a long day. The stairs were too much of an obstacle to handle then as sleep took over her body like it was now. But she couldn't go to sleep all dirty and shit, including her hair that was a bloody mess, literally. Not forgetting her pouch she snatched it up from the floor and looked at the stairs scowling at them. 'I wonder if I could install an elevator in here too,' she pondered as she crawled instead of climbing like she usually did, wincing at the sore muscles that stretched and pulled. Can anyone say bath beads, candles, and soft music? She wished Sai were here. She missed his massages.

That stunt in the entrance hall was reckless. She reviewed her innovated technique that she had taken from her ex-mentor. Instead of using chakra stored consciously into one spot she made it so the jutsu would gather the excess chakra that leaked from the body while asleep. It was an ingenious idea, only she hadn't been sleeping well lately, and had felt as old as the Hokage as she reached the pinnacle of the stairs. She stifled her hard breathing before opening the door to the kitchen. Sasuke was nowhere in sight but she could sense him in the living room where she had to pass in order to get to another flight of stairs. He was sitting on one of her couches, relaxed with one arm dangling behind him. The TV was on playing a movie, that she realized, she didn't own. She raised a brow. Where did he get that? She spoke up,

"That movie–,"

"Naruto's."

"…" her eye twitched. How rude. Turning towards the dreaded staircase she mumbled, "Well, goodnight."

"…hn," he really wasn't paying attention and until she was gone from sight he subconsciously glanced over at where she stood, then up at the continuous stairs that hid her form. Sakura was heavy footed.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

Oh kami, what was that intoxicating smell? Her nose breathed in a buttery scent that wafted in the air of her room while she snuggled some more into her bed. A huge smile came across her face as she moaned in ecstasy. 'Whatever it is, I hope it doesn't go away…' she groggily thought. A boom of laughter filled her ears making her pop up from her relaxed position in panic. That was Naruto's voice. What was he doing here? She looked at her electronic clock that read 7:30. Shrugging she fell back in comfortable bliss until a knock of wood met her ears as well. Pillows almost suffocated her as she brought them from under her and put it on top of her head instead. Although muffled, the sharp noise still reached her making her succumb to the world. Now she couldn't go back to sleep. Annoyed, she put her slippers on and lumbered to her door, with her eyes still shut and disposition sour.

Holding out her hand for the door knob without using her sense of sight was easy as she turned the handle and slowly opened the door to Sasuke. Her eyes were still blurry so when he said, "Nice bed-head ugly," they popped open completely then shut tight tearing. A bright stream of sunlight made contact with her pupils. Usually she liked nice days when the sun came out but when it picked on her like this, unawares and unguarded she loathed the huge ball of burning gas. After wiping away her involuntary tears from the corners of her eyes and rubbing one of them to get the sleep out, her other one looked pointedly at Sai. The boy that she saw earlier was only a trick of the light… or mind. "You two look so much alike it's almost unreal," she mumbled. He shrugged and started to walk back to the stairs while saying, "Naruto and the rest are worried about you. Come down soon." She yawned in response and closed her door to get ready.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

"She's coming," Sai said upon descent. Neji and Naruto looked up at her lieutenant, then to each other, then to Sasuke who didn't meet any of their gazes. Did they come into her house regularly or was this a rare thing that so many men came into her house? He didn't count. "So how was she when she came back last night, teme?" Naruto finally asked aware that Sasuke wouldn't say anything at first. Especially when the blonde made fun of him after catching him cooking pancakes. "Your subordinates didn't tell you," Sasuke stated without a question. He heard his best friend laugh nervously. "You got me there. All they said was that she got back home late and was angry. You know how intimidating she is, that's why they didn't say anything else."

Sasuke nodded and went on, "She was bleeding all over herself and had a broken hand." A heavy silence filled the room. He especially remembered the blood because he was the one that cleaned it up. As soon as she took her bath last night she disappeared into her room and never came out, "I knew it," Naruto finally responded. Sasuke glanced at his friend through his bangs. He looked frustrated and helpless. Sasuke could almost feel the same way. Knowing that you couldn't do something because you weren't strong enough or capable to help out was scary, almost surreal, he never liked that feeling. "What do you mean by had?" he looked at Sai who asked the question, arms crossed and leaning on the doorway to the lobby, face as blank as ever. "Obviously she healed herself," Neji, although barely interested raised a brow. Broken bones don't heal that fast no matter how good the medic was, didn't he realize that? Sasuke caught his expression and narrowed his eyes as he responded to the silent retort, "She used an odd jutsu I've never seen before."

Naruto snickered catching the attention of all 3 brooding men, "Did her tramp stamp spread throughout her body like your curse seal?" Sasuke raised a brow and nodded, "By that, you mean that tattoo at the base of her spinal column?" he asked back. Naruto nodded and sighed, "I was worried for a minute there but it turns out that she's completely fine. She used Baa-chan's Regenesis: Rebirth technique." What was that? Sasuke had never heard of such a thing. "If I recall Sakura-chan, didn't the old hag forbid you from using it?" They all turned to the doorway where she stared at all of them back, indifferent, and shrugged walking to her silver ware drawer.

A huge knife found itself in the possession of her hand. They all leaned in closer to look at what she was about to do. Naruto protested loudly when she slit herself deeply from the palm to her wrist as if it was nothing, "Sakura! …!" Amazement filled each eye as the blood ran down her hand and dripped to the sink. Almost immediately steam rose from her skin and repaired itself just like Sasuke had seen before. After a few seconds the wound was no longer there, and she stuck out her tongue, "Nyaaaa," while waving her hand. All of them but Sasuke seemed used to her attitude, as they all let out a breath in reproach. 'Real mature,' he thought.

Dismissing the event, Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Didn't Sai say that she was getting ready? All she had on was a tiny white tank top that showed her navel that wore a dangling belly button ring. Her black sweatpants were pulled down a little bit lower than a decent girl would show anybody and you could see a g-string from behind that matched her bra you could see through her top. Her tattoo was there as always. Everyone else besides him was in Anbu gear and didn't even seem awkward around her. But they did scrutinize her disapprovingly, particularly Naruto. "Who cooked pancakes?" she asked nonchalantly as if nothing was wrong. Where did her modesty go? He didn't mind this Sakura compared to the one he knew years ago but something about it tugged at him a bit.

She turned around to see Sai and Naruto point at Sasuke. Neji had his head down not caring. Her eyes caught his as he was looking at –ironically– his traitorous peers. Sakura blinked as he stated, "Those are yours," Huh? No, "You can't have them", or "What's it to you?" Confused she stared at him as he stood up and smacked Naruto on the head telling him to stop cooing at his generosity. They left the kitchen leaving Neji and Sai with her. "You have the day off, Hokage's orders," Sai muttered before sitting down at the kitchen table with his sketchbook. She stared at him as he got out a pencil, eraser, and then went to work on his latest drawing. Barely feeling Neji make his way towards her, she brought out a plate to put the meal Sasuke had made her on, and almost dropped the dish as he whispered, "You were blushing," in her ear. Turning around after calming herself down, she looked up at the Byakugan user. This time she was consciously aware that her face was hot.

"Was I?" she asked not believing him. Sai answered for him, "Like an idiot," glaring at Sai she "harrumphed" and looked around for the syrup ignoring Neji's laughter. After Neji left for work, Sai chose to speak about her attire, "You're not thinking of reporting to Lady Hokage like that are you?" Sakura paused in her drinking some apple juice and rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, I'll put a blouse over it, and she knows me. It's not like she's going to talk to me about decency anyway. Have you ever looked at those huge knockers that she absolutely refuses to put away?" she asked waving her fork at him and gesturing towards her own bust line.

Sakura was not jealous of her mentor. Naruto and Sasuke, well mostly Naruto, could be heard in the living room playing video games that were brought in earlier. "Who hasn't?" he retorted scribbling away not looking up. Sakura frowns, "And with that outfit of yours… you shouldn't have the nerve to say jack about my choice of attire. You're always wondering why girls want to rape you at first sight," he shows her his fake smile. "But you are aware why you have an effect on men, correct? I'm not, considering the opposite sex. What's so attractive about my old Roots uniform?"

Sakura scrunched up her face and sat up right feeling her back crack and really felt like an old lady. "Sai…" she looked up hopeful but he continued scribbling after bluntly saying, "No," fake smile gone. The master stress reliever said no. She sighed and winced a little while standing up to put her plate in the dishwasher. She couldn't complain though. He and the other guys were like big brothers to her, always letting her know what was up, helping her when she needed support, and being brutally honest about her habits. Especially Sai and Neji. Those two got along well, much to her surprise since Sasuke was a lot like them too. Antisocial, had a stick up their ass, only considerate when the situation amused them… birds of a feather flock together, right? Wrongo. She honestly thought that he would be just as close but she could tell he wanted nothing to do with them. "What are you drawing?" She asked curious. He stood up and turned his notebook to face her.

It was a picture of the original Team 7 in their current appearances. Kakashi was reading porn and Naruto looked like he was lecturing him in the background but what shocked her was Sasuke and herself, holding hands. Her brows raised in disbelief. "Wh… why did you draw that?!" she asked blushing and heavily. Honestly Sai could be so… scary. He shrugged, "The idea seemed nice at the time. It's called "Daydream," by the way," and left her alone in the kitchen. "Oi! Wait a minute you!" she chased after him but he was nowhere to be found. She huffed and caught Naruto and Sasuke looking at her. The game was paused. "Ne, what's wrong Sakura-chan? Did the ass say something again?" Sakura stared at him for awhile making Naruto worried. His face softened as he put the controller down and walked over to hug her. When he reached his destination she hugged back and said she was okay all the while staring at Sasuke who was staring back.

Naruto let go and she turned to him ignoring Sasuke, "He drew something weird," she mumbled coldly and went upstairs to get her scroll. When coming back down, she opened the front door and got out her light sweater, stared at it, and threw it to the floor. Whatever, it was sizzling anyway. "Sakura-chan?"

"I'm going to see Tsunade-sama," she announced pecking Naruto on the cheek and closed the door behind her.

"Okay, bye," he said to the door rubbing his cheek. He looked at Sasuke who shrugged then walked over to the sweater to hang it back up.

The door opened again as he turned around and saw her pink head pop out of the door. "Sasuke…" The said boy blinked in response, "Thanks for breakfast," then just as fast disappears as he nods his head.

"EH?!" Naruto says out loud.

Sasuke turned towards the flabbergasted blonde, "What?"

"Sakura said thank you," the dark haired boy raised an equally dark brow.

"So?" Naruto nearly fainted.

"Her manners… ever since she got kicked out of her parent's house she's never had them."

"You know what manners are, Naruto?" the said man frowned.

"Of course I do, bastard!" Sasuke scoffed. Sure he did.

"What do you mean by kicked out?" he asked curiously.

Naruto made his way back to the couch and started the game again. "You remember when I told you that she's been acting the way she has since she was 16?" "Hn," he continued pressing combos making Naruto growl out in frustration. "Sakura's a first generational ninja. Her parents never really supported her becoming a ninja and thought it was just a faze. When she was promoted to chuunin, they flipped out, saying no daughter of theirs was a shinobi. They're really old fashioned not to mention ancient." Sasuke raised a brow. Weren't kids disowned because they had done something bad? It wasn't really all that big a deal, was it? She fought for them and the village 24/7 and that's the thanks she gets. "Ancient?" he repeated narrowing his eyes. Naruto was winning.

"Her father and mother were in their 40's when she was born," Sasuke's eye twitched. Wow… that was a huge generational age gap. He always wondered why she was so proper unlike the girls of her age group when they were younger. Her clothes were always based on traditional styles that were hyped up a little bit but nothing dramatic like what she had on now. "So you could imagine why she's so rebellious now. As soon as the word "disowned" came out of her father's mouth, I think something snapped–, nooooo!" Naruto lost. "Have you ever played videogames before?" he asked Sasuke who shrugged, "Once or twice." He scowled and stood up.

"Are you sure that's all that happened last night?" he asked his best friend again all of a sudden.

"… before I went to bed I heard her crying herself to sleep," Naruto's jaw dropped and grabbed his shoulders.

"What?! Why?" his azure eyes looked determined and angry.

"How should I know?" he said shoving Naruto off glaring back.

"…" Naruto was strangely quiet, "Teme," Sasuke looked up.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

It was really burning up when she stepped out of her air conditioned home. As always, guys were looking at her as she crossed their paths while she walked to the Hokage's Tower. A few of them hooted, hollered, and even whistled. When Genma saw her pass by he yelled out, "Stop making me feel like a pedophile!" She laughed out loud. It wasn't that bad was it? With the weather she thought she would've gotten away with it. Guess not. Especially when she heard TenTen and Ino screech before nearly knocking her over. "Cover her up good, TenTen!" Ino commanded. They hugged her to block out the view creating even more unwanted attention. "Ugh, get off you two, you're making me hot," "NO WAY!" TenTen yelled. She rolled her eyes and wriggled away from their sweaty hands that were pulling her sweatpants up to her stomach. She pulled them back down to its former level and scowled while running away from their protests.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

"I have a mission tomorrow and'll be gone for a month. Take care of her?"

"… as if you have to ask but I can't guarantee anything," Naruto nodded.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

Tsunade looked at her ex-apprentice, and raised a blonde brow, that was on the floor panting like horse. "What the hell happened to you?" she asked sipping a sake cup. Sakura stood up shakily and handed in her mission report while Tsunade poured her an ice cold glass of the brew. "How should I know…"

Preview: "But–," Hinata was cut off as Sakura swooped in and dropped a smooch her on the lips to her utter horror.

Everyone's jaws dropped. Sasuke couldn't take his eyes off of the girl as the kiss lasted for more than a minute. The whole room was in shock. 'What the fu–,' his thoughts were cut off as Neji sputtered out blushing, "Naruto do something about your teammate and fiancée!" Naruto just stared with a slight blush and his eyes going into classical slits as he studied them, "Why? It's hot," Neji snarled in frustration and turned around to look at the other Anbu captain who finally pulled away and took a huge gulp of air. While wiping her mouth clean of the invisible evidence with the back of her sleeve she called out to Naruto keeping her eyes trained on the dead white Hinata, "That's the spirit!" She smirked and kept a hand on her hip while the other one pinched the victim's cheek and started pulling and twisting the skin to wake her up out of the nightmare.

(A/N: It's been a long time hasn't it? I'm ashamed that I can't keep anything up. I'm so sorry and yes I made her parent's ancient though her mother sounds younger in the anime. I did this for a reason to go along with the title. But don't celebrate yet. Sasuke is far from being her knight in shining armor. By the way has anyone noticed a few familiar factors in this story with my other ones? If you can point them out, b/c I'm too lazy to look myself, I'd greatly appreciate it. I hate being repetitive it just means I haven't improved…)


	5. Truth or Dare

(A/N: I'm baaaaaaaaaaack. Ehem, on today's menu we have chaos, rage, and all of the above. What would you like to order?)

Disclaimer: Why do I have to do this? Everyone knows I can't own anything for life.

Title: Tough Love

Chapter 5: Truth or Dare

Sakura gratefully took the glass from her mentor's hand and noted that she was a little tipsy as some of the liquid spilled from the edge before she even reached for it. 'Wonder what's wrong…' she thought. Mentally shrugging she ignored her teacher's trance and handed her the scroll going straight to serious mode. "I have another body in stock Tsunade-sama," the said woman looked up from the parchment to the pink haired kunoichi, "Who?" Sakura shook her head, "He was an unknown and what's more is that he spoke of the revival of their "god." I think "god's angel" is still in charge and won't give up," her almond orbs studied her while relaying, "The brat's battalion confirmed it already." Sakura nodded and sipped the drink. Her green eyes darkened as she caught what her Hokage was solemnly looking at. She saw the reflection of her pupils reflect a red hitae-ate with horns and a kanji character. 'Of course,' Sakura reminded herself. It was the anniversary of that day.

She stood up and turned around. It was Jiraiya-sama's. He's been reported missing ever since 3 years ago. Her eyes went soft at the memory of that report being read to Tsunade over the failure of Team Kakashi and Team Kurenai to bring back the last true Uchiha. The woman never showed any tears that day but the next day when Sakura came into that office her eyes were bloodshot. Naruto didn't take it too well either. She turned back towards her leader, whose hand was holding up her head covering her mouth. "He was only supposed to do some recon, that idiot," she slurred. Sakura frowned at her teacher's expense, whose own countenance was as blank as a sheet. She would never get to know how her superior felt. Naruto… as far as she could remember never had any risk of dying despite the danger that followed him as a jinchuuriki. Kakashi was always careful even though he had a go-with-the-flow-attitude and Sasuke… Sasuke left. He was too stubborn to die out in the wilderness, not that she'd care, anyway.

In the end she never lost any of them, despite the detachment, but Tsunade lost 3 important people of hers in a span of three years. It was a bit creepy seeing as how the number 3 represented completion. So she humored Tsunade, "Cheh, c'mon, it's not like we found him in some ditch yet. He's too hard to get rid of, you know that. He'll be peaking through your shower curtains soon," and gave her own impish smile to boot. A small smile graced the old woman's mouth at her ex-pupils antics to get her to cheer up. After all, although highly unlikely, there was a chance that the old pervert was still alive.

Sometimes her last apprentice was a godsend. Her optimism was contagious. "Yeah, yeah, is that all, you busy-body?" Sakura feigned a look of hurt, "We-e-ell excuse me! I was just trying to stop you from showing off your real wrinkles. They're kind of poking through today," she teased. Her mentor's eye twitched as her blonde brows drew together in annoyance. "Oh please," she scoffed banging her saké cup on her desk. Sakura watched her pick up a huge bottle from behind the desk and poured some in. She still spilled some on the wood.

She shook her pink head at her sensei's foolishness and laughed out, "Just don't O.D., on me, okay?" The woman in question waved her hand dismissing Sakura who sighed and walked out the door. Where to next? Ah yes… the furniture store. She needed another import soon before someone important comes into her own office at the hospital and sees its replacement, the icky beige fold up that she scrounged up from her basement. That was the type of table you put snacks on at parties. Everyone knew that she had expensive taste. She just had to live up to their expectations.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

The sun was setting on Konoha's horizon when she came back to her house that was leaking with noise. She raised her brow. Naruto could still be heard there but others were too. Maybe she should start telling people to come when she's actually there. Shrugging after taking one last look at the red orange sky she opened the door to her apartment instantly gawking at TenTen and Hinata, who were staring at her. Hinata in particular was glaring at her, but other than that the homeowner was invisible in her own territory. She instantly sneezed as she inhaled the air of her lobby, Kiba and Akamaru were here. Their scents drifted to her nose. She'll have a little chat with Naruto after this is over.

Who else intruded? A familiar species of bug flew by before she carefully caught it by the wing. A tick developed in her eye. What was with Hinata's team?! She avoided the girls and looked everywhere, with the bug pinned in between her hand, before yelling at Shino to not let them roam her house. Sakura was never a big fan of bugs or dogs but when there was combo in her living space she just couldn't handle it. Onward to the kitchen, Sai was there again with Ino passionately making out. She shut the door just as quickly as she opened it. Not handling that now… "Welcome home," a voice sounded. The Anbu captain didn't have to turn around to know that it was Kakashi but she did anyway. "Who let them all in?" she bit out. He turned a page of his orange book, not looking up as he dully testified, "Naruto," then with a bored attitude, "Nice outfit by the way. Now I see why Genma asked me for your hand in marriage," Sakura blushed at his additional remark.

It really mattered to her what her "Kaka-sensei" thought. She never wanted to disappoint him and didn't know why. Even though he had an atrocious habit of reading that atrocity in his hands openly, was single, and definitely had no brats of his own, he really had a fatherly air about him. If her adopted brothers failed at drawing the line and making sure she didn't go over it he made up for their ineptitude. Sakura looked down ashamed and changed the subject,

"Where's my charge?"

"Somewhere…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Sigh…," he closed his book shut and folded his arms. "I heard someone made breakfast for you and you actually thanked that person."

Sakura looked off to the side still blushing but looked miffed instead of downcast, "Yeah, what of it?"

Kakashi shrugged as he observed her jabbing her hands in her pockets and pout, "Well, it's just unheard of. Unless it was some formal event you'd never be so… graceful," he pointed out.

Sakura blew a pink strand out of her eyes, "What's your point?"

He leaned forward and gave her a smile, she was sure, hidden behind his mask, "Just saying that you're finally growing up. Good job, Sakura," he finished and ruffled her hair. She stuck out her tongue and playfully denied, "Never," before stalking away. Sakura made her way to the living room and spotted Naruto giving Hinata a hickey, who was sitting on his lap and struggling to glare at Sakura, so she couldn't yell at him like she wanted to yet. But she could at Chouji who insisted on eating barbeque chips on her black leather couch, Kiba who was laying on Akamaru whose fur was all over the carpet, Shikamaru… was asleep: scratch that, Lee was playing videogames and not really doing anything wrong, and Neji… was smothering TenTen with kisses himself on her other sofa. TenTen looked like she couldn't breathe but nonetheless looked content.

Sweat dropping and silently wishing that she could get attention like that she made her way upstairs. Sasuke wasn't downstairs and she was sure that he wasn't in the basement, although it was a possibility. She remembered that he was very unsociable when he was younger after knocking on his door 3 times. Even with the blare downstairs she heard him say, "The door's open." 'That's right…' she thought. One of the rules she put down for Kakashi was to tell him was that he wasn't allowed to lock his door. That was Tsunade's input, not hers, so she forgot all about it. He should have a right to some privacy. She turned the door knob and entered barely recognizing the room. Naruto had begged her to let Sasuke renovate his own room since he would be there for awhile. It's not like she needed the room anyway. The walls were painted blue and there was a black throw rug that had his clan's symbol on it. He was hunched over, sitting on his bed studying some scrolls with his back turned to her.

The room was dark. He had lights and even a window that was covered by some unfamiliar black themed sheer drapes, but he absolutely refused to use them. Stepping into the room and closing it behind her shocked her as the sound dissipated. She never knew that this room was sound proof! No fair… "What is it?" he asked not looking up. She studied him for a bit before stating, "It's dark in here," and walked to the window pulling the depressing curtains apart. The sunset's light streamed into the room and she smiled at the view not noticing his violent cringe before he turned around to ignore as much of the light as possible. She found him like that when she turned around herself, hands on hips. "Fine, Mr. Shadow, I'll get straight to the point. What is all that downstairs?"

Sasuke turned his dark head a little bit and muttered out, "Apparently my "Homecoming" party," sarcastically. Sakura tilted her head as the new information sunk in. Well, there was music and food if she remembered correctly. "Well, why aren't you down there celebrating with them?" He snorted, "You must be joking." She shook her head even though she knew he couldn't see her. "Well that's too bad," she started circling his queen sized bed. Stopping until she finally viewed his front that was still ignoring her almost completely, she smirked, and announced, "Any party that's thrown in honor of someone living in my house has no choice but to attend. Otherwise it wouldn't make much sense to throw one, now would it?" he looked up and narrowed his eyes. "You're not bothered by any of this?" he challenged. Her green eyes glinted at the subject as her grin faded a little, "Duh, that's why the both of you are cleaning after the party's over."

He gave her a full blown glare as she laughed evilly, "You should've stopped him," and walked out the door. Didn't she ever consider that he might have tried? He, honest to kami, did. He continued to throw invisible daggers at her as he pictured her walking down the stairs. Was it just him or did she have multiple personalities? One of which was a real bitch. (Hey that rhymes)

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

The rest of the day ended with a focus on Sakura more than the real subject of celebration, who was irritated. Why did she bother making him come down anyway?! A few more guests came and went like Kakashi who offered his Icha Icha books to Sasuke before leaving, "Just in case you get bored," he mentioned, Sasuke never looked so agitated. When Hinata, who was scary today, went to the bathroom Sakura pounded the living shit out of Naruto in front of Sasuke who got a sick satisfaction at how his head lolled around when she choked and shook him from side to side. He was nearly dead by the time his fiancée came back panicking when he wasn't breathing.

In the end, all that was left were the couples of the group. Sai and Ino; who were kicked out of her kitchen when she had to reheat some pizza in the microwave, Neji and TenTen; the former looked like he wanted to go somewhere but the latter was rooted to the house and wouldn't leave, and Naruto and Hinata; his girlfriend now had two perfectly logical reasons why she looked as if she wanted to kill Sakura. The boys were watching a game aware that the girls in the back had their own showdown of silence.

"So why did you make us leave you?" Ino finally asked Sakura. Sasuke wasn't really paying attention to the game.

The interrogated looked at her best friend out the corner of her eye while chugging down a Hard Cider bottle before responding, "Official Anbu business, pig, don't worry about it."

"Well we worried anyway!" Everyone looked at Hinata shocked. She usually didn't yell at anyone.

Sakura however kept cool, whether the booze was a catalyst or not, no one knew, "Sorry, I didn't realize I had to answer to anyone. It's not like I'm your bitch or anyth–,"

A loud sharp slap sounded in the room making the boys turn around to see Hinata standing with her hand in midair and Sakura's face turned to the side, her cheek was red. The Hyuuga heiress's veins were bulging out around her eyes as she unconsciously activated her bloodline limit in silent rage. The air suddenly felt heavy and everyone was paralyzed. Naruto had sweat dripping down his temples. His subordinates loved the idea of a cat fight but he just didn't understand what was so entertaining about them.

"Hinata hold on a sec–!" TenTen started out strong but stopped when Ino held out a hand.

"That was low coming from you," she hissed out.

Sakura hiccupped and rubbed her stinging skin, "So was that love tap, master."

"Pull yourself together. Know that we were worried because you're so casual when it comes to matters of life and death. You think it doesn't matter if you die but none of us here share your logic," Hinata ignored her slurred comeback.

"…whatever you say. I know I'm a very valuable sex slave and that you'd be waist deep, in debt if I got a booboo," Sakura grinned suggestively as the dark haired woman stared at her.

"Grow up, Sakura," she shakily let out.

"… fine, I'm sorry. You're right. I don't care if I die. I mean c'mon my namesake doesn't last long either." It wasn't cool to make her girlfriends cry, especially the Hyuuga heiress.

"But–," Hinata was cut off as Sakura swooped in and dropped a smooch her on the lips to her utter horror.

Everyone's jaws dropped. Sasuke couldn't take his eyes off of the girl as the kiss lasted for more than a minute. The whole room was in shock. 'What the fu–,' his thoughts were cut off as Neji sputtered out blushing, "Naruto do something about your teammate and fiancée!" Naruto just stared with a slight blush with his eyes going into classical slits as he studied them, "Why? It's hot," Neji snarled in frustration and turned around to look at the other Anbu captain who finally pulled away and took a huge gulp of air. While wiping her mouth clean of the invisible evidence with the back of her sleeve she called out to Naruto keeping her eyes trained on the dead white Hinata, "That's the spirit!" She smirked and kept a hand on her hip while the other one pinched the victim's cheek and started pulling and twisting the skin to wake her up out of the nightmare.

When Hinata snapped out of it she stuttered and stumbled back falling backwards. The whole group called out to the helpless woman falling down but stopped when Sakura grabbed the girls arm and held her at a 60 degree angle. The back of Hinata's head was an inch away from the sharp edge of the glass table. Almost everyone sighed out deeply in relief. She yanked her back up with one hand and stated while smiling gently, "But I do care if you die. That's why I live," Hinata was so surprised at her sudden attitude adjustment that she had nothing else to say. "Besides, I wouldn't want Naruto to be a widower before he was married, Mrs. Uzumaki," she finished bowing.

The one being teased slowly glared and started after Sakura who bolted as soon she felt her friend's killing intent laughing the whole time as she yelled out, "Get back here you… you… I'm going to kill you!" The whole room was silent as the sounds of them running and laughing throughout the house continued. After five minutes the boys turned from the TV again looking at Sakura first, whose other cheek was blue with a big grin on her face. 'Like the ones she used to have when she was 12,' Sasuke compared. Then Hinata's flushed, irritated, but content face with hair unkempt included. "How do you deal with her?" Sasuke noticed Neji ask Sai who was drawing instead of paying attention to the game. He shrugged, "Just ignore her." Easier said than done. Haruno Sakura was a force to be reckoned with.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

Before Ino left she made sure to take the alcohol out of her senpai's system through the back. Naruto and Sai had to hold her down and keep her from drinking more of the stuff. Sasuke stared at the whole thing and was surprised to hear, "She does this all the time Naruto! Why do you always bring alcohol here?! You know she can't hold her liquor that well," from Ino who was tiredly huffing because of the difficult task. Sakura was busy giggling things about Naruto and Sasuke's future children. Not Naruto and Hinata's… Of course Sasuke ignored her. After ten minutes, Ino finally finished and told "forehead" to get some sleep. Sakura was still a bit tipsy but nonetheless heard what her other best friend said and waved goodbye to her and Sai.

She slammed the door closed and smiled sweetly at both Naruto and Sasuke without looking at the other girl in the house, "Sorry Hinata but I need to borrow your betrothed. You see he never told me he was planning a party and well… let's face it, the place is a pigsty." She glanced at Sasuke out of the corner of her eye who sighed and walked towards the kitchen to start the dishes while Naruto protested, "Eh?! But Sakura-chan I got a mission tomorrow and its 10:00 I need my beauty sleep!" but Sakura wouldn't have any of it, "You should've thought about that before you decided to throw a party without consulting me first. It was completely rude." Hinata giggled and bade goodbye to all of them including Sasuke who "hn-ed" back from the kitchen. "What?! Hinata-chan, don't leave me alone! Stay with me in my last hour!" He dramatically begged. Really, sometimes he could be such a drama queen.

Sakura rolled her eyes and kicked him hard in the ass, "Get a move on." Hinata giggled again when he yelped and kissed Naruto timidly who kissed back deeply making Sakura turn around feeling out of place. They were just too much sometimes. "Hurry back Naruto-kun," she breathed in his scent in between the junction of his neck and jaw. Sakura flinched when she heard a low growl come from Naruto as Hinata gasped. She curiously turned around and almost screeched at what she saw. Somehow the pair had made it to her wall, dangerously close to her glass armoire, and started feeling each other up. Naruto was about to hike the Hyuuga heiress's leg around his waist when Sakura cleared her throat ever so loudly. The pair turned to look at Sakura who was red in the face, "Like Hinata said, speed it up so you can romp like rabbits back at your place," The woman under Naruto squeaked in mortification as she suddenly remembered where they were and pushed him off rather ruthlessly. The blonde landed on the floor with a thud and protested when she hurriedly told him sorry and bade him goodbye.

He looked up from his spot on Sakura's hardwood and muttered, "Why are you so vulgar Sakura-chan? You knew that she'd do that." She raised a brow and put her hand on her hip, "She liked you when you were still vulgar I don't see why I'm so different. Besides you were gonna have dry sex right in front of me." He pouted and sluggishly stood up. "Anyway, chances are she's still horny," Sakura added. Naruto suddenly perked up as he looked for the garbage bags, broom and dust pan. Sakura smirked roguishly but frowned a little bit as she saw him zoom past her with a grin of his own and a dazed look on his face, unaware that Sasuke was observing her from behind the kitchen door that was cracked open a little bit. He narrowed his eyes as he stared her. She pushed Naruto out of the way and called him an idiot before saying goodnight.

"Why do my friends hate me when I'm happy?" he griped but no one answered his question. Sakura could still be heard going up the stairs. Naruto sighed and looked at Sasuke who was scowling past him as if in deep thought. "Oi, what's wrong teme?" He dragged the broom and bag on the floor as he approached his best friend. "Dobe, you didn't notice?" Azure eyes blinked in confusion to Sasuke's reference, "Eh? Notice what?" The dark haired man sighed shaking his head and went back to sink also calling him an idiot under his breath. Then all was quiet. "What did I do?!" He yelled out exasperated, before Sakura shouted back, "I don't hear anything getting done down there!" Naruto winced and went to work. Sakura-chan sure was a slave driver.

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

Bored dark orbs stared at the text in front of him. He was desperate for some action but not that desperate. It was that stupid Icha Icha book his old sensei had left him. No matter how many times he said, "No," "Get that piece of shit out of my face," or "…" he still ended up with the orange book. Naruto told him that Sakura would probably serve to fill his boredom with a spar or two. She was always up for a challenge but he'd rather not. He just couldn't picture her… strong. It was pigheaded of him but he seriously didn't want to hurt her, when he said that to Naruto the blonde guffawed in his face. "She's just as strong as us teme. The last time we sparred I was in the hospital for more than 3 days."

So since then he's considered asking her for a chance to test out her skills but he hadn't seen her home for 3 weeks. As a co-captain she had the responsibility of making sure things went smoothly in Anbu due to the absence of her predecessor. Ino or Shizune took over the hospital whenever Sakura was away or standing in for Naruto. She would have to be one or the other soon though. Naruto was finally chosen to become Hokage next year around her birthday. Would she be the head captain, as the council keeps asking her to do full time, or the Head Doctor of Konoha Hospital where her skills and guidance were needed as well? He wondered if she wished she could do both. Either way she was a busy woman and was also time efficient, so she'd make her decision soon this year. Her deadline was the 1st of December. When things died down and he was allowed to live by himself he knew that they wouldn't be seeing each other often. Thank kami.

He glanced at the clock in his room. It read 7:36 pm. Then Sasuke looked at the orange book. There really was nothing to do. He had made sure everything was clean watched every show, movie, news, sports show there was in the past few days. Kakashi was away on a mission, he hadn't heard from Sakura since the night of the party, and he was never really social among anyone else he knew. Sasuke never had any problems with loneliness but he knew Sakura did. Why was she single? Did she ever try a relationship and it got so bad that she couldn't have one anymore? Was her work more important than satisfying her needs or wants? Those three questions came and went a couple of times during the week. He sat up and reached for the book and started reading the prologue. It really wasn't all that bad. He thought he would get turned off but…

"I always knew you were a pervert," a voice came from his door. Sasuke looked up and to his left where he saw Sakura leaning on the doorpost with her arms crossed. She had on a lethargic grin but looked fine. "Got anything in the fridge for me?" she asked with the grin widening. He raised a brow. What was he her chef? "Why? Can't you cook?" He decided to test her out and see if the rumors were true. Her smile momentarily froze as she pushed herself off the post and brought her hands down to her sides while slowly frowning. Her eye twitched, nose scrunched up, and mouth pouted before she walked over to his window and pulled the curtains open to lift the window's panes. "Sakura," he called out to her seeing her flinch. She was planning on ignoring him but he wouldn't let her. No one ignores Uchiha Sasuke.

She mumbled something incoherent not facing him. "Come again?" he specified watching her closely. She turned around with her eyes narrowed and said lowly to the point where he almost couldn't hear her, "No…" Instead of triumphantly smirking at her, like he wanted to, he tilted his head in interest. How exactly did she carry on all those years by herself? "Didn't your mother teach you how?" He almost stopped himself from asking the question knowing how delicate the situation was with her parents but asked anyway. This way he would get to know things were between her and them. She didn't flinch or blink at all when she answered flat out, "No," he put the book down on his nightstand and stood up. Passing her he asked, "…why?" she didn't answer for a long time as she followed him to the bathroom where he proceeded to wash his face.

"I never had time for things like that and the stuff bored me to tears anyway." He brought a towel to his face and wiped himself off before commenting with a sly grin, "Why aren't you a twig then?" She raised a floral brow of her own and replied, "Are you calling me fat?" He shook his head, "Just answer the question." She huffed but complied anyway, "Naruto's living proof of someone who doesn't cook," True but still… He walked past her again and muttered, "Hn," Under his breath. She suddenly appeared right in front of him and started to jab her finger into his chest at every syllable she growled out. "I heard that you asshole." He smacked her hand away and stated, "Heard what?" loving the way her face contorted in anger. "That thing you do without opening your mouth. Like a normal person would… and why the grilling?" her hands found themselves on both of her hips. He shrugged, "I just thought that since you were a girl you'd know the basics of household roles."

He watched her jaw drop and slowly close as her face darkened. "You SEXIST," he sighed out, "It's just tradition, Sakura, and you know what I meant." She shook her head stubbornly. "No I don't," she looked up with an impassive face, "You're a stranger after all. How would I know what you mean? I'm not your best friend…" she trailed off and looked to the side. The setting was awkward. What did she mean by stranger? He had seen a little of the old Sakura there but just as quickly as it slipped her mask attuned back into place. "What makes you say that?" her thin line turned into a frown. Was the ice block an amnesiac too? Her hand reached up to neck and proceeded to relieve the stress built up in it but she frowned upon realizing she was doing it wrong.

"Forget it," she tiredly sighed out pushing past him with her shoulder barely meeting his own but still almost knocking him down. Sasuke's eye twitched. She was about to open her door and walk through the entrance when he reached for her arm and yanked her harshly towards him. Her stumble backwards was halted as he jerked her around making her hold up both hands and landing on his chest. She looked up with murderous dark green eyes and hissed, "You better have a good excuse as to why you tripped me," his dark brows drew together in irritation as he leaned in closer towards her face until their noses touched. It was only a second but he saw that she was aware of their position. His hands found themselves on her waist and the small of her back while her hands were now a bit lower towards his biceps than earlier. Sasuke saw a small blush form on her cheeks as she kept up her glare and smirked, "How about we make a deal?"

Her blush disappeared as her face became serious and focused. "What type of deal?" He let go of her aware that her chest was pushed up against his. He was not attracted, he was not attracted… "I cook for you during the remainder of my stay here if you win against me in a spar. If you lose I teach how to cook and never make a meal for you ever again." She was silent for awhile as her eyes bore into his. He figured she'd win either way. He watched her close her eyes.

"Deal only…" he raised a brow.

"Only…?" she snapped her eyes open.

"You wear an apron that yours truly will choose without any objections, both ways."

This was 19 year old Sakura talking. The demon that he'd yet to get accustomed too. Should he…? Her smirk poked through. There was no way he was going to lose anyway.

"Aa."

O.o—O.o O.o—O.o O.o—O.o

"So… whose bright idea was this?" Green met black as Sakura continued to throw the hell out of the dough in front of her. She sheepishly smiled, he smirked, and she frowned. They were… well she was making pie. She never knew it was so hard to start it off from scratch. Basics her ass... By her standards she did not lose. She technically won because she got in the last kick on the ground. He technically lost because was able to stand up last after that spar. "Yes please tell us," a monotone accent pushed the two. Sakura jerked and Sasuke looked to Sai who wasn't looking up. He was drawing on her kitchen table again looking unbiased but his captain knew better and he knew that it was her fault as much as her charge's. She gave him a awkward smile and kept kneading the putty under her hands.

Sasuke couldn't cook anyway. She "reflexively" snapped his tendons in the arms and destroyed the muscles in them when he tried to put her in a headlock and use his Chidori Nagashi. He also had a broken leg, 2 fractured ribs, a twisted ankle (all the way around) and was still standing as if it was nothing. 'Pft, it must be because of his blood,' who else could stand after all of that? The last time Naruto and her fought like that he was rolling on the ground along with her. Sakura on the other hand had no injuries due to her Regenesis: Rebirth technique but she still had some burn scars that were hesitant to heal all the way on her upper back. She would be sleeping on her stomach tonight.

She mentally shrugged. It was worth it seeing him wear the white frilly apron that read in big bold red/crimson letters, "Kick Me, Lick Me, Bite Me, Suck Me," with a print of her favorite flower on the edges and his reaction when she shoved it in his face. He looked a little blue at first, recoiled back minutely, and she noticed a slight tremble in his form. He snatched it from her hands, ignoring her evil cackles as she instructed him how to put it on. It had six straps instead of two. Sakura had to admit, it was tempting to do every single one of those things inscribed on the cloth. He did really look good enough to eat. Too bad she knew that he was rotten inside.

Preview: No matter how much killing intent or blood lust he emitted she would not submit. It made him want to eradicate her off the face of the planet. He didn't know why but he wanted to be the one who did it. Sasuke said it again in a low undertone that she almost had to lean forward to hear, "Get off of me, Sakura," her Peridot narrowed at him. His pulse felt erratic under her fingers as she held both of his hands above his head. "Not until you cool down, Uchiha," she saw his Sharingan lose its shape a little and join together. Her own murderous orbs widened, "…Mangekyou…" she mumbled. "What did you say, Sakura?" her teacher asked her but she couldn't retort back. She was already sucked into his own world that was dark, ashen, and bloody.

(A/N: Heya bitches! honest to kami quoted from: Fallen, I swear. I can't believe it ended! Noooo! Anyways, I was sick while writing this, and felt compelled to write. I went on writing sprees actually… and I couldn't help but update my Saga of the Sakura Archives too. Have fun reading that too.)


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